Posts by Live Talks LA

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VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS,
June 4, 6pm PT/9pm ET (click here)
TICKETS:
$50 Virtual Admission + Signed Book*
*Includes access to watch the event on video-on-demand for five days after it airs.
*Books include a signed book plate

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Frank, funny and open-hearted, You Never Know is an intimate memoir from one of the most beloved actors of our time. With never-told stories from all corners of his personal and professional life, Tom Selleck recounts his friendships with Frank Sinatra, Carol Burnett, Sam Elliott, James Garner and more.
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Tom Selleck is an award-winning actor and producer best known for his iconic role as Thomas Magnum in the original Magnum P.I. television series. Among the many unforgettable roles he has played are PI Lance White on The Rockford Files, Peter Mitchell in Three Men and a Baby, Matthew Quigley in Quigley Down Under, and Peter Malloy in In & Out. He was beloved as Dr. Richard Burke, Monica’s older boyfriend, on Friends and is currently starring as NYPD Commissioner Frank Reagan on the hit crime drama Blue Bloods, now in its 14^th season. 
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In Tom Selleck’s new memoir, You Never Know, the star of Magnum P.I. and Blue Bloods shares his backstory—from the University of Southern California business school and basketball court to his co-star turn with Mae West and his recurring role as Monica’s boyfriend on Friends. 
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Selleck clears up an armload of misconceptions and shares dozens of never-told stories from all corners of his personal and professional life. He also shares what it was like to emerge as a mega-star in his mid-thirties— and how he adjusted his career to protect his family’s privacy and normalcy. 
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With charm, talent, and self-deprecating humor, Selleck reveals himself as someone who reached incredible heights by always insisting on being himself. His journey offers a fresh perspective on a changing industry and a changing world. 

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VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS,
June 3, 6pm PT/9pm ET (click here)
TICKETS:
$15 Virtual Admission 
*Includes access to watch the event on video-on-demand for five days after it airs
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A provocative, brilliant analysis by recently retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer that deconstructs the textualist philosophy of the current Supreme Court’s supermajority and makes the case for a better way to interpret the Constitution.
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Stephen Breyer is a former associate justice of the Supreme Court who served there for twenty-eight years until retiring in 2022. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 
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“A rocket from a Supreme Court justice… Justice Breyer shows how the current Supreme Court’s alleged textualism and originalism are unsound. His book is a judicial arms-control agreement advocating moderation and a path to what he calls ‘workable democracy.’ You will not read a more important legal work this election year.”  — Bob Woodward, Washington Post reporter and bestselling author.
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READING THE CONSTITUTION: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism is a provocative analysis by recently retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. In it, he deconstructs the textualist philosophy of the current Supreme Court’s supermajority and makes the case for a better way to interpret the Constitution.
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Textualists claim that the right way to interpret the Constitution and statutes is to read the text carefully and examine the language as it was understood at the time the documents were written.
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Justice Breyer recalls Chief Justice John Marshall’s exhortation that the Constitution must be a workable set of principles to be interpreted by subsequent generations. Most important in interpreting law, says Breyer, is to understand the purposes of statutes as well as the consequences of deciding a case one way or another. He illustrates these principles by examining some of the most important cases in the nation’s history.

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VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS,
May 25, 3pm PT/6pm ET (click here)
TICKETS:
$35 Virtual Admission + audio book
*Includes access to watch the event on video-on-demand for five days after it airs. Audiobook will be emailed on the morning of the event, May 25.
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Hilarious and practical advice for how to up your small talk game from comedians, actors and self-appointed experts on chit-chat, Casey Wilson and Jessica St. Clair..
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Join comedians, actors, and self-appointed experts on chit-chat Casey Wilson and Jessica St. Clair for the launch of their original audiobook, which breathes new life into a lost art. In The Art of Small Talk, they share simple rules for how to achieve the connectedness we all crave with any and everyone. Backed by scientific research (conducted by real experts!) Casey and Jessica explain how to move past the perceived misery of idle chit-chat and start making magic out of the mundane—including entertaining tips that will take you from Hostile Beginner to Confident Expert. They’ll also share compelling insights on the importance of chatting up strangers. 
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Casey Wilson is an actress, writer, author, director, and podcaster. Her first book, The Wreckage of My Presence, was a New York Times bestseller and is currently being adapted for TV. Some of her more recent television credits include The Shrink Next Door alongside Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd and The Righteous Gemstones. Together with Danielle Schneider, Casey co-hosts the cult-favorite podcast, Bitch Sesh, which was nominated for a Critic’s Choice Award in 2019.   
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Actress and writer Jessica St. Clair initially gained notoriety by performing at the legendary Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York and Los Angeles. She went on to co-create and co-star in Best Friends Forever on NBC in 2012 and the critically-acclaimed Playing House, in 2014, which ran for three seasons on USA Network. She starred in not one—but two—space comedies: Space Force, opposite Steve Carrell, for Netflix and Avenue 5, opposite Hugh Laurie, for HBO. 

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VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS, May 25 (click here)
TICKETS:
$45 Virtual Admission + signed book (includes shipping to US addresses)
*Includes access to watch the event on video-on-demand for five days after it airs
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A gorgeous, witty account of birding, nature, and the beauty around us that hides in plain sight, written and illustrated by the best-selling author of The Joy Luck Club
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Amy Tan is the author of several novels, including The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter’s Daughter. She is a co-producer and co-screenwriter of the film version of The Joy Luck Club and is on the board of American Bird Conservancy. She lives in Sausalito, California. 

“The drawings and essays in this book do a lot more than just describe the birds. They carry a sense of discovery through observation and drawing…The birds that inhabit Amy Tan’s backyard seem a lot like the characters in her novels.” —David Allen Sibley, from the foreword
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In 2016, Amy Tan grew overwhelmed by the state of the world. In search of peace, the bestselling author turned toward the natural world just beyond her window and, specifically, the birds visiting her yard. What began as an attempt to find solace turned into something far greater—an opportunity to savor quiet moments during a volatile time, connect to nature in a meaningful way, and imagine the intricate lives of the birds she admired.
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The Backyard Bird Chronicles maps the passage of time through daily entries, thoughtful questions, and beautiful original sketches. With boundless charm and wit, she charts her foray into birding and the natural wonders of the world.

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The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas and their fifty-year sisterhood, a legacy erased from history—until now.
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“This is the kind of history I wish I learned as a child dreaming of the stage!” —Misty Copeland, author of Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy
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The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas, the first principals in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, who traveled the world as highly celebrated stars in their field and whose legacy was erased from history until now.

At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Lydia Abarça was a Black prima ballerina with a major international dance company—the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She was the first Black ballerina on the cover of Dance magazine, an Essence cover star, cast in The Wiz and on Broadway with Bob Fosse. She performed in some of ballet’s most iconic works with her closest friends—founding members of the company, the Swans of Harlem, Gayle McKinney, Sheila Rohan, Marcia Sells, and Karlya Shelton—for the Queen of England and Mick Jagger, with Josephine Baker, at the White House, and beyond.

Some forty years later, when Lydia’s granddaughter wanted to show her own ballet class evidence of her grandmother’s success, she found almost none, but for some yellowing photographs and programs in the family basement. Lydia had struggled for years to reckon with the erasure of her success, as all the Swans had. Still united as sisters in the present, they decided it was time to share their story themselves.

Captivating, rich in vivid detail and character, and steeped in the glamor and grit of professional ballet, The Swans of Harlem is a riveting account of five extraordinarily accomplished women, a celebration of their historic careers, and a window into the robust history of Black ballet, hidden for too long.

Lydia Abarca Mitchell is a founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, where she danced lead roles in Agon, Bugaku, Swan Lake and many more. She has been featured on the covers of Dance and Essence and in print ads for Avon and Revlon. She performed in the movie The Wiz, and in Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ on Broadway. She has been the rehearsal director at Atlanta’s Ballethnic for over 20 years.

Sheila Rohan is a founding member of Dance Theatre of Harlem, where she was a soloist in Geoffrey Holder’s Dougla, Arthur Mitchell’s Rhythmetron, and more. She was soloist and ballet mistress for the Nanette Bearden Contemporary Dance Theatre and toured China and Korea with the Myung Sook Chun Dance Company. She performed the role of Rosa Parks in Gordon Parks’s televised ballet Martin and, as a choreographer, assisted legends such as Louis Johnson, and Walter Rutledge among others. 

Marcia Lynn Sells began her life in the arts as a ballerina at Dance Theatre of Harlem and, before that, in the Cincinnati Ballet. In 2021, she became the first Chief Diversity Officer for the Metropolitan Opera. Previously, she held positions in the private and public sectors including Reuters America, the National Basketball Association, Columbia University School of Law, Harvard Law School, and the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. 

Karlya Shelton-Benjamin began dancing at age 4 with the Colorado Concert Ballet (currently Colorado Ballet). At 17, she became the first person of color to represent the United States in the prestigious Prix de Lausanne ballet competition in Switzerland. She performed around the world with the Dance Theatre of Harlem, is a founding member of Peridance, has taught and coached at Oakland Ballet and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance.

Karen Valby

Karen Valby is a writer living in Austin, Texas. She’s the author of the books The Swans of Harlem and Welcome to Utopia. Her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, where she is a frequent contributor, as well as in The New York Times, O Magazine, Glamour, Fast Company, and EW, where she spent fifteen years writing about culture.