Podcasts by City Arts
Further podcasts by City Arts & Lectures
Podcast on the topic Kunst
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Werner Herzog from 2023-12-03T21:00
This week, legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog. He’s made over 70 movies – most of them documentaries like Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, and Grizzly Man. Herzog’s style is so distinctiv...
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Azar Nafisi from 2022-04-10T20:00
This week, our guest is author and academic Azar Nafisi. Her books include Reading Lolita in Tehran and Things I’ve Been Silent About. Nafisi was born in Iran, and first came to the United State...
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Questlove and Boots Riley from 2022-04-03T20:00
This week, we’re listening back to a conversation on creativity from 2018 with two artists whose work span multiple genres. Boots Riley is the leader of the radical funk/hip-hop band “The Coup,”...
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Progressive Prosecuting: Chesa Boudin and Kim Foxx from 2022-04-03T19:50
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was elected to office in 2020 after a campaign focused on improving public safety and reforming the criminal justice system. Kimberly M. Foxx is the...
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From the Archives: Madeleine Albright from 2022-03-27T20:00
We’re celebrating the life of the late Madeleine Albright this week with an encore of her 2008 City Arts & Lectures appearance.. Madeleine Albright was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 193...
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Jacob Ward from 2022-03-20T20:00
Journalist Jacob Ward of NBC News talks about our growing reliance on artificial intelligence. His new book is “The Loop: How Technology Is Creating a World Without Choices, and How to Fight Ba...
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Jack Kornfield and Anne Lamott from 2022-03-13T20:00
Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India and Burma. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and was one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhi...
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Jeremy Denk from 2022-03-06T21:00
Our guest is Jeremy Denk, one of America’s foremost pianists. Winner of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize, Denk is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences....
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Stephen Breyer from 2022-02-20T21:00
In January of 2022, after more than three decades on the Supreme Court, Justice Stephen G. Breyer announced that he’ll retire at the end of the current term, once his successor has been confirme...
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Wajahat Ali from 2022-02-13T21:00
Wajahat Ali is a playwright and lawyer who writes and speaks on race, religion, politics, and social justice with insight and humor. He is the author of The Domestic Crusade...
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Tongo Eisen-Martin from 2022-02-06T21:00
Tongo Eisen-Martin is the current poet laureate of San Francisco. He is the author of Heaven Is All Goodbyes, published as part of City Lights’ Pocket Poet series, and someone’s dea...
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Billy Collins from 2022-01-30T21:00
Billy Collins is one of the most popular contemporary poets. His 12 collections include “The Trouble With Poetry” and “The Rain in Portugal”. He’s known for conversational poems that welcome r...
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Temple Grandin from 2022-01-23T21:00
Temple Grandin is an author and speaker on both autism and animal behavior. She is a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, and consults on both livestock handling equipment d...
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From the Archives: E. O. Wilson from 2022-01-16T21:00
This week, we reach into the City Arts & Lectures archives for a conversation with E. O. Wilson. The biologist and author was the world’s leading authority on ants – but he was also often ...
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From the Archives: Wayne Thiebaud from 2022-01-09T21:00
Painter Wayne Thiebaud is best known for his carefully studied still lifes of ordinary objects such as hot dogs, sweets, and lipsticks. It’s his cherry-topped cakes, lush with frosting, and brig...
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From the Archives: Archbishop Desmond Tutu from 2022-01-02T21:00
This week, we present an archival City Arts & Lectures program recorded in 2010 with the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his daughter, the Reverend Mpho Tutu, in conversation with Roy Eisen...
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From the Archives: Joan Didion from 2021-12-26T21:00
This week, we reach into the City Arts & Lectures archives for a conversation with Joan Didion.
One of the most influential writers of our time, Didion both chronicled and shaped Ame...
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From the Archives: bell hooks and Walter Mosley in 1995 from 2021-12-19T21:00
This week, we celebrate the life and work of trailblazing poet, feminist, and cultural critic, bell hooks. bell hooks changed the course of feminism, demanding that the voices of women of color,...
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Louise Erdrich from 2021-12-12T21:00
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louise Erdrich has written many novels including Love Medicine and The Roundhouse, as well as works of non-fiction, poetry, and children’s books. She’s written ext...
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Nikole Hannah-Jones and Barry Jenkins on The 1619 Project from 2021-12-05T21:00
This week – Jeff Chang talks to Nikole Hannah-Jones, one of today’s foremost investigative journalists. Her reporting on civil rights and racial justice, including school segregation, has earne...
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Stephen Sondheim from 2021-11-28T21:00
For this special archive edition of City Arts and Lectures, we present a 2008 interview with the lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim. Since his Broadway debut at age 27 as the lyricist for “...
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Anita Hill from 2021-11-07T21:00
In 1991, Anita Hill testified at the Senate confirmation hearings of Justice Clarence Thomas. It was an act of enormous bravery, and Hill immediately became a symbolic figure of extraordinary c...
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Dave Eggers from 2021-10-31T19:00
Dave Eggers’ books include A Hologram for the King, What is the What, and many more since his breakout memoir in the year 2000, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. He’s written a new nove...
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Adam Schiff from 2021-10-24T20:00
Congressman Adam Schiff represents California’s 28th Congressional District. In his 11th term in the House of Representatives, Schiff currently serves as the Chair of the House ...
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Andrea Elliott from 2021-10-17T20:00
Andrea Elliott is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times and a former staff writer at The Miami Herald. In 2012, Elliott set out to report about...
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Mary Roach from 2021-10-10T20:00
Mary Roach is the author of the books Stiff, Spook, Bonk, Gulp, Grunt, and Packing for Mars, all of which bring her distinctly funny voice t...
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Karl Ove Knausgaard from 2021-10-03T20:00
Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard is best known for the autobiographical series “My Struggle.” The six volumes total more than 3,000 pages. And the books manage to be both epic and intimate. ...
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Colson Whitehead from 2021-09-26T20:00
Colson Whitehead is the only novelist to win a Pulitzer Prize for consecutive books: The Underground Railroad, now a television miniseries directed by Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins, and
Frances Moore Lappé from 2021-09-19T20:00
This week, we’ll hear from Frances Moore Lappé, whose groundbreaking book “Diet for a Small Planet” was controversial when it first came out in 1971. World hunger was a major news topic and a g...
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Daniel Handler from 2021-09-16T03:48:34
Under the pen name Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler is responsible for the beloved thirteen-volume A Series of Unfortunate Events and the four-volume All the Wrong Questions, amo...
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Andrew Budson from 2021-09-16T03:47:06
Dr. Andrew Budson is a cognitive and behavioral neurologist, a cognitive neuroscientist, and author. He has written and co-authored a number of books that focus on Alzheimer’s disease, dementia,...
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Michael Pollan from 2021-09-05T20:00
This week…. a encore of a 2018 conversation with Michael Pollan. When it was originally recorded in 2018, the idea of using psychedelics for therapeutic intervention was new to many people. Toda...
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Alison Bechdel from 2021-08-26T22:26:36
Alison Bechdel‘s cult following for her early comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For grew wildly in response to her family memoirs, the best-selling graphic memoir Fun Home, adapte...
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"Learning in Public" with Courtney Martin from 2021-08-22T20:00
When journalist Courtney Martin learned that white families in her gentrifying neighborhood in Oakland largely avoided the majority-Black, poorly-rated public school down the street, she began a...
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Hannah Zeavin: The Distance Cure, A History of Teletherapy from 2021-07-25T20:00:09
This week, we’ll hear how distance has played a key role in psychotherapy – even before the pandemic. Starting with Freud’s treatments by mail, to crisis hotlines, and now mobile phones and Zoom...
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Michelle Zauner from 2021-07-18T20:00
Michelle Zauner is a musician who plays indie pop under the name “Japanese Breakfast”. Zauner grew up in the Pacific Northwest, raised by her mother, a Korean immigrant. As an adult, she moved...
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Lucy Corin from 2021-07-11T23:07:15
Lucy Corin is the author of the novel “Everyday Psycho Killers: A History for Girls”, and two short story collections, the most recent being “100 Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses”. On June 23,...
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Victoria Chang from 2021-07-11T20:00
Poet Victoria Chang’s new collection, “Obit”, is about grief and grieving. Chang wrote the book in the wake of her mother’s death. The poems are written as obituaries, and their creation gave ...
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Michael Lewis “The Premonition: A Pandemic Story”. from 2021-06-27T20:00
Our guest is Michael Lewis, whose best-selling books include “Moneyball”, “The Blind Side”, and “The Big Short”. Lewis manages to research and write a new book almost every year, and ...
Jhumpa Lahiri from 2021-06-20T20:00
Twenty years ago, Jhumpa Lahiri received the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for Interpreter of Maladies, her debut story collection that explores issues of love and identity among immigrants and cultura...
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Stress and Resilience: Elissa Epel and Dacher Keltner from 2021-06-13T20:00
Over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, people have faced unprecedented emotional challenges. Our guests this week are both experts in the relationship between physical and emotional well-being...
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High on the Hog: Dr. Jessica B. Harris with Samin Nosrat from 2021-06-06T20:00
Dr. Jessica B. Harris is the preeminent authority on the culinary culture of the African Diaspora. Harris has spent over three decades studying African food and its migration. To understand th...
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Bryan Stevenson from 2021-05-23T20:00
Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer who’s brought national attention to the failures of America’s criminal justice system. He’s the founding director of the Equal Justice Institute in Montgomery, Alabam...
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Tamika Mallory from 2021-05-23T20:00
As an activist fighting for racial and social equality, Tamika Mallory has inspired countless others to get involved with these issues – and never more so than when the speech she made...
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David Mitchell and Pico Iyer from 2021-05-16T20:00
This week, we’ll listen to a conversation with David Mitchell and Pico Iyer, recorded on May 8, 2021. David Mitchell’s many novels include Cloud Atlas, The Bone Clocks, and
Rachel Kushner from 2021-05-09T20:00
Rachel Kushner is the author of several novels including The Mars Room and The Flamethrowers. Her work has been compared to Joan Didion’s, and that of Don DeLillo, a literary mentor to Kushner....
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Astra Taylor and Robert Reich from 2021-05-02T20:00
This week, our guests are Astra Taylor and Robert Reich. Taylor is an activist, author, and documentary filmmaker whose films include What is Democracy? (2018) and An Examined Life (2008). Last...
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Alonzo King from 2021-04-25T20:00
This week, we present a conversation with choreographer Alonzo King. He’s the artistic director of LINES Ballet, a contemporary dance company in San Francisco. He founded it in 1982, and has r...
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The Catastrophist - Lauren Gunderson and Nathan Wolf from 2021-04-18T20:00
Playwright Lauren Gunderson’s work is often based on the lives of historical figures – scientists like Marie Curie and Isaac Newton, and political figures such as the first woman elected to Con...
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Ocean Vuong and Tommy Orange from 2021-04-11T20:00:47
This week, we’ll hear a conversation between two writers with unique perspectives on America. Ocean Vuong is a poet and the author of the novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. The story close...
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Mindfulness and Medicine, with Larry Brilliant and Jack Kornfield from 2021-04-04T20:00
This week, our guests bring us unique perspectives on life during a pandemic. Larry Brilliant is a renowned epidemiologist whose work with the World Health Organization helped eradicate smallpo...
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Jenny Offill from 2021-03-28T20:00
Jenny Offill is the author of the novels Last Things, Dept. of Speculation, and, most recently, Weather. One of the pleasures of reading Offill’s books is hearing the ...
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Reuben Jonathan Miller from 2021-03-21T20:00
There are over 2 million people incarcerated in the United States – but tens of millions more who are living with criminal records. This week, we’ll hear about the constraints and challenges fa...
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Rebecca Handler and Daniel Handler from 2021-03-19T17:47:59
In this City Arts & Lectures Podcast exclusive, Daniel Handler and Rebecca Handler talk about family and work in a uniquely familiar conversation that only siblings could have.
Patricia Lockwood from 2021-03-14T20:00
Poet, memorist, and essayist Patricia Lockwood is perhaps best known for her memoir Priestdaddy, an extraordinarily funny account of growing up the daughter of the most singular Catholic priest ...
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Susan Choi from 2021-03-07T04:18:49
This week, our guest is novelist Susan Choi. She’s the author of five books, most recently “Trust Exercise”. It centers on a group of teenagers at a competitive art school in 1980s suburbia. W...
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The Science of Sleep with Matthew Walker from 2021-02-21T21:00
Why do humans sleep? What is sleep’s evolutionary basis? And what is really going on while we sleep? This week, we broadcast a conversation with cognitive neuroscientist Matthew Walker, talkin...
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Dr. Carl Hart "Drug Use for Grown-Ups" from 2021-02-07T21:00
Dr. Carl Hart is a neuroscientist and psychologist at Columbia University whose research focuses on the effects of psychoactive drugs on the brain. He’ll talk about his positions on recreation...
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Cheryl Dunye from 2021-01-31T21:00
This week, a conversation with filmmaker Cheryl Dunye. Dunye first emerged in the 1990’s as part of the “Queer New Wave”, and much of her work explores questions of race and gender, using her o...
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Gabriel Byrne from 2021-01-24T21:00
We’ve long admired Gabriel Byrne for his nuanced performances in films like The Usual Suspects, Miller’s Crossing, and Dead Man, and the television series In Treatment, for which he wo...
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The Future of Polling from 2021-01-17T21:00
This week, a conversation with two veteran political opinion researchers about the future of polling. They’ll explore to what extent election outcomes can accurately be anticipated. Many believe...
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Robert Sapolsky from 2021-01-10T21:00:52
This week, we are presenting an encore of a 2017 conversation with Dr. Robert Sapolsky. Sapolsky is a primatologist and neurologist with a unique gift for storytelling. Oliver Sacks called him ...
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Ear Hustle from 2020-12-27T21:00
This week, a conversation with two of the creators of Ear Hustle, the first podcast created and produced in prison. The show features stories of the daily realities of life inside California’s S...
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Thomas Keller from 2020-12-20T21:00
Thomas Keller is the first and only American chef to have two Michelin Guide three-star-rated restaurants, The French Laundry and per se, both of which continue to rank among the best restaurant...
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Race, Storytelling, and the Future of Journalism with W. Kamau Bell and Chan’Cellore Makanjuola from 2020-12-13T21:00
In the past year, journalists have been out in the streets covering racial reckoning and protest. Inside newsrooms – which are overwhelmingly white – media organizations are beginning to confro...
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Crosstalk Part Two: Genre is Cancelled from 2020-12-06T21:00:36
Crosstalk is a two-part series of compiled conversations between City Arts & Lectures guests from the previous three years, discussing literary identity and the sometimes pleasurable, s...
Crosstalk Part One: Writing Identity from 2020-11-30T03:24:26
Crosstalk is a two-part series of compiled conversations between City Arts & Lectures guests from the previous three years discussing literary identity and the sometimes pleasurable, sometim...
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Going Meatless: The Future of Sustainable Food from 2020-11-22T21:23:13
Our guests are a chef and a scientist who are tackling climate change through creating sustainable food. Pat Brown is a biochemist and founder of Impossible Foods, a company at the forefront of...
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Yotam Ottolenghi from 2020-11-15T21:00
Our guest is chef and author Yotam Ottolenghi, whose best-selling cookbooks have earned him a cult following among home chefs around the world. Born in Israel, Ottolenghi now lives in London wh...
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Alicia Garza and Megan Rapinoe from 2020-11-08T21:00
This week, we’re broadcasting a conversation with Alicia Garza and Megan Rapinoe, recorded four days before the presidential election. Alicia Garza is an activist and writer. In 2013, she post...
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Bruce Springsteen from 2020-11-01T21:00
This week, a conversation with Bruce Springsteen, originally recorded in 2016. The legendary rock star, referred to by his countless fans as “The Boss”, had just published his autobiography, Bor...
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Alice Wong and W. Kamau Bell: Disability Visibility from 2020-10-25T20:00
This week, disability activist Alice Wong talks with comedian and journalist W. Kamau Bell. Wong is founding director of the Disability Visibility Project, an online community dedicated to creat...
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Chanel Miller with Jia Tolentino from 2020-10-18T20:00
Chanel Miller was just twenty-seven years old when she published her memoir, Know My Name, the book recounts her experience as the victim of sexual assault. It’s a keen examination of gender, po...
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Claudia Rankine from 2020-10-11T20:00
This week, a conversation with poet and essayist Claudia Rankine. Rankine is the author of Citizen: An American Lyric and four previous books, including Don’t Let Me Be Lonely....
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Jill Lepore from 2020-09-27T20:00
Jill Lepore is a professor of American History at Harvard University and also a staff writer at The New Yorker. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, her many books include the international bests...
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The Science of Music with Indre Viskontas from 2020-09-06T20:00
This week, we present an encore of a 2014 conversation on the neuroscience of music and creativity with Dr. Indre Viskontas, a cognitive scientist and opera singer. Viskontas has published ...
Trevor Noah from 2020-08-30T20:00
From the City Arts & Lectures archives, a conversation with Trevor Noah originally recorded November 21, 2016…. just following Donald Trump’s election. Noah is the host of Comedy Cen...
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Whoopi Goldberg from 2020-08-23T20:00
From the City Arts & Lectures archives, a conversation with Whoopi Goldberg, originally recorded in 1987, just after Goldberg’s explosive performance in the film adaptation of The Color ...
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Jeffrey Toobin and Preet Bharara from 2020-08-16T20:00
Our guests this week is Jeffrey Toobin, whose latest book is “True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump”. How is it that so many close associates of President Trump have b...
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The Buddhist on Death Row from 2020-08-10T01:15:02
For 30 years, renowned Buddhist thinker Jarvis Jay Masters has lived on Death Row at San Quentin State Prison. His spiritual practice has helped him deal with violent and difficult experiences i...
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Maria Bamford from 2020-08-02T20:00
Maria Bamford uses comedy to confront her lifelong struggles with OCD, bipolar disorder, and suicidal thoughts. She is the star of “Lady Dynamite”, a surrealist series based on her life, as wel...
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Steve Kerr from 2020-07-26T20:00
Steve Kerr, head coach for the Golden State Warriors, is one of the most important figures in basketball today. A former NBA championship player, Kerr was named head coach of the Warriors in 201...
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Charlie Kaufman from 2020-07-19T20:00
One of the most acclaimed filmmakers of our time, Charlie Kaufman is best known for movies like Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. His unique style...
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The Science of Psychedelics with Robin Carhart-Harris from 2020-07-12T20:00
How might substances like LSD, psilocybins, and other hallucinogens provide relief to people suffering from conditions such as depression, addiction, and anorexia? Robin Carhart-Harris is a neu...
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Anna Wiener from 2020-07-05T20:00
Anna Wiener is a contributing writer to The New Yorker, covering Silicon Valley, startup culture, and technology. In her mid-twenties,as the tech industry was rapidly transforming into ...
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Brian Greene from 2020-06-28T20:00
Brian Greene is one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists, widely recognized for his groundbreaking discoveries in the field of superstring theory. His ability to clearly communicate cut...
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Hanif Abdurraqib from 2020-06-21T20:00
Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic. Abdurraqib’s writing fuses cultural commentary
with intimate poetic language. His subjects – everything from A Tribe Called Quest...
Ethics in Technology, with Ruha Benjamin and Meredith Whittaker from 2020-06-14T20:00
Ruha Benjamin studies the social dimensions of science, technology, and medicine. In books like “Race After Technology”, and “People’s Science”, Benjamin examines how racial inequality plays ou...
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Mary Karr and Kaveh Akbar from 2020-06-07T20:00
This week, a conversation between two of today’s most fearless writers, addressing topics of addiction, spirituality, and existence. Mary Karr is the author of "Lit" and "The Liars Club" -- mem...
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Rebecca Solnit and Britt Marling from 2020-05-31T20:00
This week, we present a conversation between two of today’s most incisive thinkers and creators. Rebecca Solnit is a writer, activist and public intellectual. Her broad curiosity has fueled over...
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Jia Tolentino and Jenna Wortham from 2020-05-24T20:00
This week, two phenomenally smart observers of culture, Jia Tolentino and Jenna Wortham. Tolentino
is a staff writer at The New Yorker and author of the essay collection “Trick Mirror”. Wo...
Your Undivided Attention: Persuasive Technology with Tristan Harris from 2020-05-17T20:00
What are some of the insidious designs behind the technology we engage with? How are algorithms designed to convince you to keep scrolling? Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Te...
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FEMAIL: The Art of Sustainable Fashion from 2020-05-10T20:00
Our guests are Camilla Carper and Janelle Abbott, the co-creators of FEMAIL Forever, a project dedicated to sustainability and zero waste. The two met in design school, and after graduation, re...
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Miranda July from 2020-05-03T20:00
Miranda July is a multi-disciplinary artist with enormous output who has honed an entirely unique voice, one that provides unconventional perspectives on bizarre nuances of human connection. She...
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Remembering Oliver Sacks from 2020-04-26T20:00
The pioneering writer and neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks, who died in 2015, was beloved for his compassion and creativity. Sacks was deeply invested in the lives and well-being of his patients – p...
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Peggy Orenstein from 2020-04-19T20:00
Peggy Orenstein is the author of “Cinderella Ate My Daughter” and other books about the cultural constraints that affect young women. Orenstein has now turned her attention to boys - conducting...
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Carmen Maria Machado and Namwali Serpell from 2020-04-12T20:00
Our guests are Carmen Maria Machado and Namwali Serpell. Carmen Maria Machado’s “In The Dream House,” is a memoir about queer domestic abuse, beautifully and meticulously told through an array ...
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Dolores Huerta and Alice Waters from 2020-04-05T20:00:08
Our guests are Dolores Huerta and Alice Waters, legendary activists working in different, but complementary areas of our food systems. Huerta is co-founder of the United Farm Workers Associatio...
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Robert Reich from 2020-03-29T20:00:34
Our guest is Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, and Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. Contrary to what many politicians...
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Ocean Vuong from 2020-03-22T20:00:33
Our guest is poet Ocean Vuong. His debut novel "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" takes the form of a letter written to the narrator's mother. The details closely mirror Vuong's own life. Vuon...
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Ottessa Moshfegh from 2020-03-15T20:00
Ottessa Moshfegh is the author of the novels "My Year of Rest and Relaxation", and "Eileen", and the novella "McGlue". Moshfegh is known for writing characters wracked with depression and neuros...
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Dan Pfeiffer from 2020-03-08T20:00
Dan Pfeiffer was one of the first people to volunteer on Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency in 2008. He was one of the last people to leave, in 2015. Over those eight years, Pfeiffer ser...
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Sally Rooney from 2020-03-01T21:01:30
Not yet thirty years old, the Irish novelist Sally Rooney has quickly amassed an international following. In “Conversations with Friends” and “Normal People”, Rooney’s nuanced depictions of com...
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Adam Mansbach and W. Kamau Bell from 2020-02-23T21:00:43
Adam Mansbach is a screenwriter and cultural critic whose books include “Angry Black White Boy,” and “The End of the Jews.” But he achieved his greatest commercial success with his first adult p...
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Raphael Bob-Waksberg from 2020-02-16T21:00
This week our guest is Raphael Bob-Waksberg, creator of the darkly funny animated series “BoJack Horseman,” now in its final season on Netflix. The show has received wide acclaim for its concur...
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"Eating Alone in My Car" with Melissa Broder from 2020-02-09T21:00
Our guest is poet, podcaster, and novelist Melissa Broder. Broder’s sardonic humor and genuine vulnerability have garnered a loyal following through her twitter persona @sosadtoday - as well as...
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Ibram X. Kendi from 2020-02-02T21:00
Our guest is historian Ibram X. Kendi, the author of “Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America.” Kendi’s newest book, “How to be an Antiracist”, tasks reader...
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Ben Lerner and Maggie Nelson from 2020-01-26T21:00
Ben Lerner and Maggie Nelson are two of the foremost writers working at the intersections of poetry, nonfiction, and memoir. They talk about Lerner's book "The Topeka School", a semi-autobiograp...
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Gloria Steinem from 2020-01-12T21:00:26
Our guest is writer, activist, and feminist organizer Gloria Steinem. In 1971, when Steinem founded the groundbreaking “Ms.” women’s magazines focused on finding a husband, or the right lipstic...
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Chris Hughes from 2020-01-05T21:00
Our guest is Chris Hughes. In May of 2019, Hughes published an Op-Ed in the *New York Times, *entitled “It’s Time to Break Up Facebook.” Hughes called for government regulation of the platform, ...
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Andre Aciman and Andrew Sean Greer from 2019-12-22T21:00:18
Our guests are writers Andre Aciman and Andrew Sean Greer. Aciman is a memoirist, essayist, and scholar of seventeenth-century literature. His best-known novel, “Call Me By Your Name”, was adapt...
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John Lithgow with Calvin Trillin from 2019-12-15T21:00
Our guest is actor, artist, and now - published poet John Lithgow, known for his television and film roles including “Third Rock From the Sun,” “The Crown,” and “The World According to Garp” - a...
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Zadie Smith from 2019-12-08T21:00
Zadie Smith is known for her emotionally rich stories and unique perspective on contemporary culture. Smith wrote her widely acclaimed debut novel “White Teeth” as an undergraduate. She soon cem...
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Ta-Nehisi Coates with Chris Jackson from 2019-12-01T21:00
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 main...
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Ta-Nehisi Coates with Michael Chabon from 2019-12-01T21:00
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 fro...
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Susan Sontag: Her Life and Work from 2019-11-17T21:00
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 ...
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Governor Jerry Brown and Miriam Pawel from 2019-11-10T21:12:54
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...
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Patti Smith from 2019-11-03T21:00
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 “...
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Demi Moore from 2019-10-27T20:00
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 h...
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Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey from 2019-10-20T20:00
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 o...
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Rachel Maddow from 2019-10-13T20:01:14
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...
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Malcolm Gladwell from 2019-10-06T20:00
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 passi...
Dr. Jen Gunter from 2019-08-25T20:00
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 pe...
Privacy and Technology from 2019-08-18T19:58:07
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 ...
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Amor Towles from 2019-08-11T20:00
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 ...
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George Packer from 2019-08-04T20:00
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 ...
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Jared Diamond from 2019-07-21T20:00
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" combin...
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Tom Sachs and Adam Savage from 2019-07-15T18:00
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 interste...
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Anand Giridharadas from 2019-07-14T20:00
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’...
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David Brooks from 2019-07-07T20:00
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...
Combating Climate Change with Bill McKibben and Mustafa Santiago Ali from 2019-06-30T20:00
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...
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Samin Nosrat and Lindy West from 2019-06-23T20:00
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. Sam...
Jelani Cobb from 2019-06-16T20:10:08
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 Universit...
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Michael Lewis from 2019-06-09T20:00:31
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 fasc...
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"Still Processing" Live, with Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris from 2019-06-02T20:13:24
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 fo...
Stacey Abrams from 2019-05-26T20:01:34
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 Georg...
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Ruth Reichl from 2019-05-19T20:01:19
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 la...
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Dr. Michio Kaku from 2019-05-12T20:11:19
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 robus...
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Rachel Cusk from 2019-05-05T20:00:06
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 succes...
"Ear Hustle" with Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods from 2019-04-28T20:00:18
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,...
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"The Whole Brain Child" with Dr. Daniel Siegel from 2019-04-21T20:00:47
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 popula...
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Rebecca Solnit from 2019-04-14T20:00
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 tw...
Tommy Orange from 2019-04-07T20:00
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 o...
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Preet Bharara from 2019-03-31T20:00
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 i...
Marlon James from 2019-03-24T20:00
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...
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Michael Tubbs from 2019-03-17T20:00
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...
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Jad Abumrad from 2019-03-10T20:00
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 “Mor...
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Rebecca Traister from 2019-03-03T21:00
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
Wo...
Meg Wolitzer from 2019-02-24T21:00
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 ...
Jeff Tweedy from 2019-02-10T21:00:18
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...
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Angela Davis and Ibram X. Kendi from 2019-02-03T21:00
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 pos...
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James Forman Jr. from 2019-01-27T21:00
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 ...
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Nadine Burke Harris from 2019-01-20T21:00
This week on City Arts & Lectures, pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris talks about how exposure to violence and stress affects the developing brains and bodies of children - resulting in increa...
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Kirsten Gillibrand from 2019-01-13T21:00
Kirsten Gillibrand has represented New York in the US Senate since 2009, where her major accomplishments include leading the effort to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and providing permanent heal...
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Jonathan Franzen from 2019-01-07T17:48:59
Our guest is Jonathan Franzen, the author of celebrated novels including “The Corrections” and “Freedom.” On November 27, 2018, Franzen came to the Nourse Theater in San Francisco to read from h...
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Al Madrigal from 2018-12-30T21:00
Our guest is comedian Al Madrigal, best known for his role as the "Senior Latino Correspondent" for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where he helped shed light on racism and anti-immigrant senti...
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Peter Sagal from 2018-12-23T21:00
Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!”, is an accomplished playwright, actor, and now - marathoner, and author of the new book “The Incomplete Book of Running”. Sagal came to t...
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Eileen Myles from 2018-12-17T20:21:41
Eileen Myles is the author of more than twenty books of essays, fiction, and poetry including “Chelsea Girls” and “I Must Be Living Twice.” On November eighth, 2018, Myles came to the Nourse Th...
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Abbi Jacobson from 2018-12-10T16:49
Our guest is Abbi Jacobson, a comedian and author who’s best-known as half of the creative duo behind the series “Broad City” On November 3, 2018, Jacobson came to the Nourse Theater for a...
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Artificial Intelligence: The Problem with Bias, with Kate Crawford from 2018-12-04T17:26:10
Does artificial intelligence reflect the biases of those who create it? Can discrimination live on digital platforms and become part of the logic of everyday algorithmic systems? Kate Crawford,...
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Jill Soloway and Friends from 2018-11-26T00:04:01
This program presents a gathering of feminist thought leaders to celebrate the publication of Jill Soloway’s book “She Wants It: Desire, Power, and Toppling the Patriarchy.” Soloway is the crea...
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Barry Jenkins from 2018-11-18T21:00
Director, producer, and writer *Barry Jenkins *has received sweeping critical acclaim for his films, which notably depict black and queer experience through a nuanced and expressive len...
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Susan Orlean from 2018-11-13T17:04:54
A staff writer for The New Yorker since 1992, Susan Orlean has written with wit and endless curiosity about subjects ranging from umbrella inventors to origami artists,...
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Doris Kearns Goodwin from 2018-11-04T21:00
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s new book, Leadership in Turbulent Times, is a culmination of five decades of studying American Presidents. Combining her signature storytelling w...
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The New York Times Op-Ed Live from 2018-10-28T22:21:28
This week, City Arts & Lectures features Michelle Goldberg, Jennine Capó Crucet, and Roxane Gay, all of whom are contributors to the New York Times Op-Ed section. The program includes stand-...
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Fran Lebowitz from 2018-10-21T20:00
In a cultural landscape filled with endless pundits and talking heads, Fran Lebowitz stands out as one of our most insightful social commentators. Often considered heir to the c...
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Sally Field from 2018-10-14T20:00
Our guest is Sally Field. She got her start acting on TV in situation comedies like “Gidget" and “The Flying Nun”, before doggedly pursuing a career in film at a time when television talent was ...
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"The Daily" from the New York Times, with Michael Barbaro, Annie Brown, and Kevin Roose from 2018-10-07T20:00:28
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Mohsin Hamid&Pico Iyer from 2018-09-30T19:35:28
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Gary Shteyngart from 2018-09-23T20:00
Gary Shteyngart reads from his latest book, "Lake Success", and talks with Isabel Duffy about his writing methods, his love of luxury watches and roadside diners, and Soviet humor.
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Questlove&Boots Riley from 2018-09-14T16:48:56
This week, Questlove and Boots Riley join us for a conversation about art, activism, and the creative process. Questlove is a founding member of The Roots, a seminal hip hop band out of...
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Hilton Als from 2018-02-08T17:35:30
Hilton Als spoke with Stephen M. Best on February 8, 2018 at the Sydney Goldstein Theater.
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