Posts by Live Talks LA

Walter Isaacson, a professor of history at Tulane, has been CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair of CNN, and editor of Time. He is the author of Leonardo da Vinci; The Innovators; Steve Jobs; Einstein: His Life and Universe; Benjamin Franklin: An American Life; and Kissinger: A Biography, and the coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. He is a host of the show Amanpour and Company on PBS and CNN, a contributor to CNBC, and host of the podcast Trailblazers, from Dell Technologies.  He appeared at Live Talks Los Angeles in conversation with Michael Lewis for his book on Leonardo da Vinci. (watch the video)

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s interest in leadership began more than half century ago as a professor at Harvard. Her experiences working for LBJ in the White House and later assisting him on his memoirs led to her bestselling biography Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. She followed up with the Pulitzer-Prize winning No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor and the Home Front in World War ll. She earned the Lincoln Prize for the runaway bestseller Team of Rivals, the basis for Steven Spielberg’s award-winning film Lincoln, and the Carnegie Medal for The Bully Pulpit, the bestselling chronicle of the friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Her latest bestseller is Leadership: In Turbulent Times.  

“When a great biographer combines his own fascination with science and a superb narrative style, the result is magic. This important and powerful work, written in the tradition of The Double Helix, allows us not only to follow the story of a brilliant and inspired scientist as she engages in a fierce competitive race, but to experience for ourselves the wonders of nature and the joys of discovery.” —Doris Kearns Goodwin

When Jennifer Doudna was in sixth grade, she came home one day to find that her dad had left a paperback titled The Double Helix on her bed. She put it aside, thinking it was one of those detective tales she loved. When she read it on a rainy Saturday, she discovered she was right, in a way. As she sped through the pages, she became enthralled by the intense drama behind the competition to discover the code of life. Even though her high school counselor told her girls didn’t become scientists, she decided she would.

Driven by a passion to understand how nature works and to turn discoveries into inventions, she would help to make what the book’s author, James Watson, told her was the most important biological advance since his co-discovery of the structure of DNA. She and her collaborators turned ​a curiosity ​of nature into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions.

The development of CRISPR and the race to create vaccines for coronavirus will hasten our transition to the next great innovation revolution. The past half-century has been a digital age, based on the microchip, computer, and internet. Now we are entering a life-science revolution. Children who study digital coding will be joined by those who study genetic code.

Should we use our new evolution-hacking powers to make us less susceptible to viruses? What a wonderful boon that would be! And what about preventing depression? Hmmm…Should we allow parents, if they can afford it, to enhance the height or muscles or IQ of their kids?

After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader in wrestling with these moral issues and, with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020. Her story is a thrilling detective tale that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life to the future of our species.

Noreena Hertz is a renowned thought leader, academic, and broadcaster, named by The Observer“one of the world’s leading thinkers” and by Vogue“one of the world’s most inspiring women.” Her previous bestsellers—The Silent Takeover, The Debt Threat, and Eyes Wide Open—have been published in more than twenty countries, and her opinion pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and Financial Times. She has hosted her own show on SiriusXM and spoken at TED, the World Economic Forum in Davos, and Google Zeitgeist. Hertz holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD from Cambridge University and is based at University College London, where she holds an honorary professorship. 

Brian Grazer is an Oscar-winning producer and New York Times bestselling author. His films and television shows have been nominated for forty-three Academy Awards and 195 Emmys. His credits include A Beautiful Mind, 24, Apollo 13, Splash, Arrested Development, Empire, 8 Mile, Friday Night Lights, American Gangster, and Genius, among others. He is the author of Face to Face: The Art of Human Connection and the New York Times bestseller A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. Grazer was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and is the cofounder of Imagine Entertainment along with his longtime partner, Ron Howard.

An Eater Best Cookbook of Fall 2020. This new cookbook from chef, bestselling author, and TV star Marcus Samuelsson celebrates contemporary Black cooking in 150 extraordinarily delicious recipes.

Marcus Samuelsson is the acclaimed chef behind many restaurants worldwide. He has won multiple James Beard Foundation awards for his work as a chef and as host of No Passport Required, his public television series with Vox/Eater. Samuelsson was crowned champion of Top Chef Masters and Chopped All Stars, and was the guest chef for President Obama’s first state dinner. A committed philanthropist, Samuelsson is co-chair of Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), which focuses on underserved youth. Author of several cookbooks in addition to the NewYork Times bestselling memoir Yes, Chef, Samuelsson also co-produces the annual Harlem EatUp! festival, which celebrates the food, art, and culture of Harlem. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Samuelsson converted his restaurants Red Rooster Harlem, Marcus B&P in Newark, and Red Rooster Overtown in Miami into community kitchens in partnership with World Central Kitchen, serving well over 150,000 meals to those in need. 
 
Osayi Endolyn is a James Beard Award–winning writer with work in Time, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, Eater, Food & Wine, Condé Nast Traveler, and the Oxford American. She appears in Chef’s Table and Ugly Delicious on Netflix, and has been featured on NPR’s 1A, Splendid Table, Special Sauce with Ed Levine, and the Sporkful podcast, for which she won a Webby. She is a recipient of the UC Berkeley-11th Hour Food & Farming Journalism Fellowship, and Southern Living named her one of thirty women moving Southern food forward. In addition to other book collaborations, Endolyn is working on a narrative about the history of systemic racism in American restaurant and dining culture. Follow her @osayiendolyn on Twitter and Instagram.

Yewande Komolafe is a writer, recipe developer, and food stylist from Lagos, Nigeria. She develops recipes that lend taste and texture to her experience as an immigrant in the United States. A regular contributor to the New York Times, her work has also appeared in Whetstone, Taste Cooking, Food + Wine, Saveur, and several other platforms and publications. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, daughter, and many jars of spices.It is long past time to recognize Black excellence in the culinary world the same way it has been celebrated in the worlds of music, sports, literature, film, and the arts. Black cooks and creators have led American culture forward with indelible contributions of artistry and ingenuity from the start, but Black authorship has been consistently erased from the story of American food.

While years in the making, The Rise reads like a response to the racial awakening that has defined the tumultuous spring and summer of 2020… [It] joins other recent cookbooks, notably by Toni Tipton-Martin, in celebrating the diversity of Black American food, and by making Black chefs and cooks the center of the story of American cuisine. The book also suggests a strategy for responding proactively to this moment: read, cook, reflect. Now repeat.―The New York Times 

Now, in The Rise, chef, author, and television star Marcus Samuelsson gathers together an unforgettable feast of food, culture, and history to highlight the diverse deliciousness of Black cooking today. Driven by a desire to fight against bias, reclaim Black culinary traditions, and energize a new generation of cooks, Marcus shares his own journey alongside 150 recipes in honor of dozens of top chefs, writers, and activists—with stories exploring their creativity and influence.
 
Black cooking has always been more than “soul food,” with flavors tracing to the African continent, to the Caribbean, all over the United States, and beyond. Featuring a mix of everyday food and celebration cooking, this book also includes an introduction to the pantry of the African diaspora, alongside recipes such as:

• Chilled corn and tomato soup in honor of chef Mashama Bailey
• Grilled short ribs with a piri-piri marinade and saffron tapioca pudding in homage to authors Michael Twitty and Jessica B. Harris
• Crab curry with yams and mustard greens for Nyesha Arrington 
• Spiced catfish with pumpkin leche de tigre to celebrate Edouardo Jordan
• Island jollof rice with a shout-out to Eric Adjepong
• Steak frites with plantain chips and green vinaigrette in tribute to Eric Gestel
• Tigernut custard tart with cinnamon poached pears in praise of Toni Tipton-Martin

A stunning work of breadth and beauty, The Rise is more than a cookbook. It’s the celebration of a movement.

Chad Sanders is a writer, director, actor, and musician based in New York City. Previously, Chad worked at Google and YouTube and as a tech entrepreneur. He has since written and cowritten TV series and feature films with collaborators Spike Lee, Morgan Freeman, and Will Packer. Chad’s op-ed pieces have appeared in The New York Times, SLAM magazine, and Teen Vogue. Before living in New York, Chad lived in Berlin, London, Oakland, and Atlanta. Chad is a graduate of Morehouse College. He was born and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Will Packer has produced or executive produced a wide range of movies that have grossed more than $1 billion worldwide at the box office films he has produced over the past decade. Packer’s most recent film, “The Photograph,” debuted in February 2020. His films include “Girls Trip,” “Night School,” “Little,” “What Men Want,” “Ride Along 2,” “No Good Deed,” “Think Like a Man Too,” “Ride Along,” “Think Like a Man,” “Takers,” “Obsessed,” “Breaking In” and “Stomp the Yard.” Packer also served as an executive producer on the megahit “Straight Outta Compton,” a biopic of the rap group NWA.

His episodic scripted and unscripted series  include “The Atlanta Child Murders,” a docuseries that appeared on Investigation Discovery; “The Disappearance of the Millbrook Twins,” (Oxygen); and “Shark Trip: Eat. Prey. Chum.,” (Discovery) and the original comedy series “Bigger” (BET+). Packer served as the executive producer of “Roots,” a remake of one of the most celebrated TV programs of all time, for which he received an Emmy Award nomination. He has also executive produced such prime time programming as the unique dating series “Ready to Love” (OWN), “Ambitions” (OWN), “Truth be Told” (NBC), “Uncle Buck” (ABC) and “Being Mary Jane” (BET).

“Chad has the unique ability to turn his experiences and the experiences of others into a guidebook that will inspire many healthy discussions. This is Chad’s superpower.” – Morgan Freeman, actor

“Daring, urgent and transformative. Not only did the stories and interviews in Black Magic forever change how I think about leadership and culture, they challenged me as a parent, friend and citizen. This book will be required reading in our organization.” – Brené Brown, bestselling author of Dare to Lead

“I remember the day I realized I couldn’t play a white guy as well as a white guy. It felt like a death sentence for my career.”

When Chad Sanders landed his first job in lily white Silicon Valley, he quickly concluded that to be successful at work meant playing a certain social game. Each meeting was drenched in white slang and the privileged talk of international travel or folk concerts in San Francisco, which led Chad to believe he needed to emulate whiteness to be successful. So Chad changed. He changed his wardrobe, his behavior, his speech—everything that connected him with his Black identity.

And while he finally felt included, he felt awful. So he decided to give up the charade. He reverted back to the methods he learned at the dinner table, or at the Black Baptist church where he’d been raised, or at the concrete basketball courts, barbershops, and summertime cookouts. And it paid off. Chad began to land more exciting projects. He earned the respect of his colleagues. Accounting for this turnaround, Chad believes, was something he calls Black Magic, namely resilience, creativity, and confidence forged in his experience navigating America as a Black man. Black Magic has emboldened his every step since, leading him to wonder: Was he alone in this discovery? Were there others who felt the same?

In moving essays, Chad dives into his formative experiences to see if they might offer the possibility of discovering or honing this skill. He tests his theory by interviewing Black leaders across industries to get their take on Black Magic. The result is a revelatory and very necessary book. Black Magic explores Black experiences in predominantly white environments and demonstrates the risks of self-betrayal and the value of being yourself.