Posts by Live Talks LA
Doris Kearns Goodwin with Frank Buckley
Thursday, October 4, 2018
8pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)
Doris Kearns Goodwin
in conversation with Frank Buckley
discussing her new book,
Leadership: In Turbulent Times
Aratani Theatre
Japanese American Cultural & Community Center
244 S. San Pedro Street
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90012
PURCHASE TICKETS
$55 Orchestra Section Seat + book
$45 Balcony Section Seat + book
$100 Premium Orchestra Seating, Reception (6:30-7:30p) + Book
$20 General Admission Tickets (on sale Aug 4)
In this culmination of five decades of acclaimed studies in presidential history, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin offers an illuminating exploration of the early development, growth, and exercise of leadership.
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s interest in leadership began more than half a 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 Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. She followed up with the Pulitzer Prize–winning No Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II. She earned the Lincoln Prize for the runaway bestseller Team of Rivals, the basis for Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning film Lincoln, and the Carnegie Medal for The Bully Pulpit, the New York Times bestselling chronicle of the friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Follow her on Twitter @DorisKGoodwin.
Are leaders born or made? Where does ambition come from? How does adversity affect the growth of leadership? Does the leader make the times or do the times make the leader?
In Leadership, Goodwin draws upon the four presidents she has studied most closely—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson (in civil rights)—to show how they recognized leadership qualities within themselves and were recognized as leaders by others. By looking back to their first entries into public life, we encounter them at a time when their paths were filled with confusion, fear, and hope.
Leadership tells the story of how they all collided with dramatic reversals that disrupted their lives and threatened to shatter forever their ambitions. Nonetheless, they all emerged fitted to confront the contours and dilemmas of their times.
No common pattern describes the trajectory of leadership. Although set apart in background, abilities, and temperament, these men shared a fierce ambition and a deep-seated resilience that enabled them to surmount uncommon hardships. At their best, all four were guided by a sense of moral purpose. At moments of great challenge, they were able to summon their talents to enlarge the opportunities and lives of others.
This seminal work provides an accessible and essential road map for aspiring and established leaders in every field. In today’s polarized world, these stories of authentic leadership in times of apprehension and fracture take on a singular urgency.
Frank Buckley is an anchor of KTLA Morning News. Frank joined KTLA in June 2005 from CNN where he had been a national correspondent. Frank is also host of the “Frank Buckley Interviews” podcast.
Frank’s reporting experiences have taken him around the world and have included assignments covering the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, politics for CNN, frequent reporting from the White House during George W. Bush’s presidency, natural disasters in Japan, the Los Angeles riots, the Hong Kong handover, the OJ Simpson trial and countless other stories in Southern California and across the U.S.
Prior to KTLA and CNN, Frank reported for Los Angeles station KCAL-TV, WXII-TV in Winston-Salem, N.C., and at KESQ-TV in Palm Springs. He has also written for the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit News.
Doris Kearns Goodwin photo credit: Annie Leibowitz
America Ferrera with Anjelah Johnson
America Ferrera
in conversation with Anjelah Johnson
American Like Me:
Reflections on Life Between Cultures
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Blvd.,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$50 Reserved Section Seat + Book
$40 General Admission Seat + Book
$20 General Admission Section Seat (on sale Sep. 4)
From award-winning actress and political activist America Ferrera comes a vibrant and varied collection of first person accounts from prominent figures about the experience of growing up between cultures.
America Ferrera is an award-winning actress, producer, director and activist. Ferrera is best known for her breakthrough role as “Betty Suarez” on ABC’s hit comedy, Ugly Betty, for which she won Golden Globe, Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, ALMA, and Imagen Awards. She produces and stars in the acclaimed NBC workplace comedy, Superstore, currently in its fourth season. In 2016 Ferrera cofounded HARNESS, an organization connecting storytellers and activists to amplify the cultural narrative around social justice. She speaks throughout the country as an advocate for human and civil rights and was the opening speaker at the monumental Women’s March on Washington in January 2017.
America Ferrera has always felt wholly American, and yet, her identity is inextricably linked to her parents’ homeland and Honduran culture. Speaking Spanish at home, having Saturday-morning-salsa-dance-parties in the kitchen, and eating tamales alongside apple pie at Christmas never seemed at odds with her American identity.
Still, she yearned to see that identity reflected in the larger American narrative.
Now, in American Like Me, America invites thirty-one of her friends, peers, and heroes to share their stories about life between cultures. We know them as actors, comedians, athletes, politicians, artists, and writers. However, they are also immigrants, children or grandchildren of immigrants, indigenous people, or people who otherwise grew up with deep and personal connections to more than one culture. Each of them struggled to establish a sense of self, find belonging, and feel seen. And they call themselves American enthusiastically, reluctantly, or not at all.
Anjelah Johnson-Reyes was born and raised in San Jose, California and is of Mexican and Native American descent. She started her career as a professional cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders and as an Oakland Raiderette, she was named Rookie of the Year and even performed in Super Bowl XXXVII. She became an internet sensation with her viral video, “Nail Salon” which led to many stand up, television and film opportunities. She joined the cast of “MADtv” as a series regular, which spawned another internet sensation, “Bon Qui Qui.” This original character, a disgruntled fast food employee with no filter, has been enjoyed, viewed and replicated by over 65 million people worldwide. After recording and releasing 3 songs and 2 music videos as Bon Qui Qui, Anjelah signed a record deal with Warner Bros. Records to release a full album titled, “Gold Plated Dreams”, which she’s toured twice selling out both times. Bon Qui Qui teamed up with Benefit Cosmetics for her third music video “This Is How We Do It”. After the success of her debut album, Bon Qui Qui released a Christmas EP titled “Merry Hoodmas”. Anjelah has appeared in multiple ads & commercials including campaigns for Sprint, Visa, Snickers, Verizon, All-State, K-Swiss, Dryers Ice Cream and was the spokesperson for a Texas based restaurant chain, Taco Cabana. Anjelah has also guest starred on shows such as The Shield, Ugly Betty, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and others all while touring with her stand up comedy. In June 2009 Anjelah recorded her first one-hour special for Comedy Central and Warner Bros. Records titled, “That’s How We Do It.” Her second one-hour special, The Homecoming Show, aired on NUVOtv in July of 2013. In 2014 Anjelah recorded her third hour special, “Not Fancy” which is a Netflix original. In 2017 she filmed her fourth hour special Mahalo & Goodnight in Honolulu, Hawaii. It premiered on the Epix channel and is now available on Hulu. Johnson has starred in such films as OUR FAMILY WEDDING, ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL, ENOUGH SAID, THE RESURRECTION OF GAVIN STONE and the film MOM’S NIGHT OUT which not only features Anjelah but also her husband, musician Manwell Reyes of the musical duo Panda$.
Kate Atkinson with Susan Orlean
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
8pm
Kate Atkinson
in conversation with Susan Orlean
Transcription
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Blvd.,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$45 Reserved Section Seat + Book
$20 General Admission
A dramatic story of WWII espionage, betrayal, and loyalty, by the bestselling author of Life After Life and a God in Ruins
Kate Atkinson’s first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year Award. She has been a critically acclaimed, bestselling author ever since, with over one million copies of her books in print in the United States. She is the author of a collection of short stories, Not the End of the World, and of the novels Life After Life, A God in Ruins, Human Croquet, Emotionally Weird, Case Histories, One Good Turn, When Will There Be Good News?, and Started Early, Took My Dog. Case Histories, which introduced her readers to Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, was made into a television series starring Jason Isaacs.
“There is intrigue. There are surprises. But the unknowns aren’t always what we think they are. The deepest pleasure here, though, is the author’s language. As ever, Atkinson is sharp, precise, and funny . . . Another beautifully crafted book from an author of great intelligence and empathy.”―Kirkus, Starred Review
In 1940, eighteen-year old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past forever.
Susan Orlean is the author of eight books, including The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup; My Kind of Place; Saturday Night; and Lazy Little Loafers. In 1999, she published The Orchid Thief, a narrative about orchid poachers in Florida, which was made into the Academy Award-winning film, Adaptation starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep. Her book, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, a New York Times Notable book, won the Ohioana Book Award and the Richard Wall Memorial Award. She is currently writing a book about the Los Angeles Public Library, The Library Book, which will be published in this October.
Orlean has been a staff writer for the New Yorker since 1992, covering such subjects as taxidermy, fashion, umbrellas, origami, dogs, and chickens. She previously interviewed T.C. Boyle at Live Talks Los Angeles. (Video)
Jeff Bridges with Sam Rubin
Jeff Bridges
in conversation with Sam Rubin
Living in the Future’s Past
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Blvd.,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$25 General Admission Seats
Jeff Bridges’ Award-Winning Documentary ‘Living in the Future’s Past’ Brings a Fresh Perspective on Being Human for our Challenging Times and Asks “What Kind of Future Would You Like to See?”
Jeffrey Leon “Jeff” Bridges is an American actor and musician. His most notable films include The Big Lebowski, King Kong, The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Tron, Starman, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Seabiscuit, K-PAX, The Fisher King, Fearless, The Contender, Iron Man, Tron: Legacy, True Grit and Crazy Heart, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 82nd Academy Awards.
Living In The Future’s Past, a beautifully photographed tour de force produced and presented by Jeff Bridges who explores who we are, where we come from, how we think and why we do the things we do. Bridges shares the screen with profound thinkers, scientists, and a dazzling array of the Earth’s creatures to reveal profound concepts about ourselves and our future in ways that have never been presented quite like this on film before.
Living in the Future’s Past bypasses ideological traps and looks under the “hood of humanity” incorporating elements of evolution, neuropsychology, emergence, ecology and energy into a paradigm shift in the way we think about environmental challenges.
Bridges joins scientist and astronaut Piers Sellers, Being Ecological author Timothy Morton, physicist and Author, Elastic: Flexible Thinking In a Time of Change, Leonard Mlodinow, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Wesley Clark, and author of Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman among many other experts and profound thinkers. The music score is by Bridges collaborator Keefus Ciancia (Lady Killers, Thunderbird, Sleeping Tapes) with additional music by composer Bob Holroyd and award-winning sound designer Ken Polk.
Living in the Future’s Past premiered at Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Sam Rubin is the entertainment reporter for the KTLA Morning News. Rubin hosts the Emmy-nominated “Live from the Academy Awards,” syndicated nationally by Tribune Entertainment, “Sneaks,” a series of movie preview shows produced in conjunction with the Los Angeles Times, as well as a show for the Reelz Channel. He is a recipient of a Golden Mike Award for Best Entertainment Reporter from the Radio & Television News Association and, as part of the KTLA Morning News team, earned an Associated Press Television-Radio Award for Best News Broadcast.
In addition to his activities at KTLA, he also reports for Tribune’s WGN-TV in Chicago. Nationally, Rubin provides reports for “On Air With Ryan Seacrest,” “Show Buzz,” and CNN. On the radio, Rubin reports for Los Angeles’ KNX-AM. Rubin has been previously at Live Talks Los Angeles interviewing Alan Cumming, Garry Marshall, Terry Gilliam, Aasif Mandvi and Daymond John.
Soraya Chemaly with Amy Baer
8pm
Soraya Chemaly
in conversation with Amy Baer
Rage Becomes Her
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Blvd.,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS/RSVP
This event is part of our Newer Voices Series.
General Admission tickets are complimentary, but we encourage you to support these newer authors and purchase their books.
PURCHASE TICKETS
Comp General Admission Tickets RSVP HERE (Available Aug, 24 10am)
$30 Reserved Section Seat + Book
$35 Two Reserved Section Seats + 1 book
Soraya Chemaly is an award-winning writer and activist whose work focuses on the role of gender in culture, politics, religion, and media. She is the Director of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project and an advocate for women’s freedom of expression and expanded civic and political engagement. A prolific writer and speaker, her articles appear in Time, the Verge, The Guardian, The Nation, HuffPost, and The Atlantic. Follow her on Twitter at @SChemaly and learn more from her website.
“How many women cry when angry because we’ve held it in for so long? How many discover that anger turned inward is depression? Soraya Chemaly’s Rage Becomes Her will be good for women, and for the future of this country. After all, women have a lot to be angry about.”
—Gloria Steinem
“Women’s anger is the last taboo. In this provocative examination of the forbidden, hidden emotion, Soraya Chemaly asks ‘What do we lose, personally and as a society, by not listening to women’s anger or respecting it?’ Answer: the true voice of half of humanity. If you want to understand why #Metoo has swept the country, you need to read this book.”
—Katha Pollitt, poet and columnist, author of Learning To Drive
A transformative book urging twenty-first century-women to embrace their anger and harness it as a tool for lasting personal and societal change.
Women are angry, and it isn’t hard to figure out why.
We are underpaid and overworked. Too sensitive, or not sensitive enough. Too dowdy or too made-up. Too big or too thin. Sluts or prudes. We are harassed, told we are asking for it, and asked if it would kill us to smile. Yes, yes it would.
Contrary to the rhetoric of popular “self-help” and an entire lifetime of being told otherwise, our rage is one of the most important resources we have, our sharpest tool against both personal and political oppression. We’ve been told for so long to bottle up our anger, letting it corrode our bodies and minds in ways we don’t even realize. Yet our anger is a vital instrument, our radar for injustice and a catalyst for change. On the flip side, the societal and cultural belittlement of our anger is a cunning way of limiting and controlling our power.
We are so often told to resist our rage or punished for justifiably expressing it, yet how many remarkable achievements in this world would never have gotten off the ground without the kernel of anger that fueled them? Rage Becomes Her makes the case that anger is not what gets in our way, it is our way, sparking a new understanding of one of our core emotions that will give women a liberating sense of why their anger matters and connect them to an entire universe of women no longer interested in making nice at all costs.
Following in the footsteps of classic feminist manifestos like The Feminine Mystique and Our Bodies, Ourselves, Rage Becomes Her is an eye-opening book for the twenty-first century woman: an engaging, accessible credo offering us the tools to re-understand our anger and harness its power to create lasting positive change.
Amy Baer is President of Women in Film. Her experience in the entertainment Industry uniquely spans major studios, independent financiers, and producing. Collectively, the films she has supervised and/or produced have grossed nearly $2 billion in worldwide box office. Her first film as a producer was the 2013 hit LAST VEGAS (starring Michael Douglas, Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline) which grossed $136MM worldwide.
In 2012, she launched Gidden Media, a content incubation and production company. Its first film, the romantic drama MARY SHELLEY, starring Elle Fanning and directed by Haifaa Al Mansour had its World Premiere at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival. It was released by IFC in May 2018.
Her next film, inspirational true story BRIAN BANKS, will World Premiere at the LA FILM FESTIVAL. The movie, starring Aldis Hodge, Greg Kinnear and directed by Tom Shadyac tells the story of Brian Banks, an all-American high-school football player committed to USC by his junior year, whose life was upended in 2002 when falsely accused of rape. With the help of the California Innocence Project, Banks got his conviction overturned his name cleared in 2012 after a decade of wrongful imprisonment and parole.
Before starting her own company, Baer served as President & CEO of CBS Films (2007-2011), launching the division for CBS Corp. Baer spent the previous 17 years at Sony Pictures Entertainment, where she oversaw such hit films as MY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING, Oscar nominated ADAPTATION, S.W.A.T., SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE and THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS, which earned Will Smith an Oscar nomination. She also developed the 2011 Oscar-nominated Sony hit MONEYBALL, starring Brad Pitt. She began her career at Creative Artists Agency in 1988 as an assistant to the late Jay Moloney.
Baer became Board President of Women in Film in June, 2018, stepping into the role at a critical juncture in Hollywood, as the entertainment industry faces a broad reckoning over gender disparities and sexual harassment. Founded in 1973, Women In Film advocates for and advances the careers of women working in the screen industries – to achieve parity and transform culture.
Baer graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University in 1988 with a B.A. in English literature. In addition to Women In Film, she also serves on the board of the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Producers Guild of America.
Daniel Siegel with Elisha Goldstein
Daniel Siegel
in conversation with Elisha Goldstein
Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence
The Groundbreaking Meditation Practice
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Blvd.,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$53 Reserved Section Seat + Book
$43 General Admission Seat + Book
$20 General Admission Section Seat
$30 Reserved Section Seat
$95 Reception (6:30-7:30pm) + Reserved Section seat + Book
This event is Co-Presented by New Roads School.
(learn more about New Roads)
We welcome Dan Siegel back to our stage for his new book, Aware, his groundbreaking new book introducing readers to his pioneering, science-based meditation practice. He has appeared at Live Talks Los Angeles four previous times: in conversation with Paul Zak for his book, Mind; and interviewing Gretchen Rubin and Jack Kornfield and also with Diane Ackerman celebrating the work of Jack O’Donahue. (Watch the videos in the links).
Daniel J. Siegel, M.D is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. He is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute which focuses on the development of mindsight, which teaches insight, empathy, and integration in individuals, families and communities.
Siegel has published extensively for both the professional and lay audiences. His four New York Times bestsellers are: Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human, Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain, and two books with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D: The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline. His other books include: The Developing Mind, Mindsight, The Mindful Brain, The Mindful Therapist and The Yes Brain (also with Tina Payne Bryson, PH.D). He also serves as the Founding Editor for the Norton Professional Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology which contains over sixty textbooks.
“Daniel Siegel counts among the most aware people I know—and now he’s shared with us all a brilliant, practical tool for us all to sharpen our awareness.”
—Daniel Goleman, author of Altered Traits and Emotional Intelligence
“Dan Siegel, who gave us a succinct and clear definition of mind, now explores the awareness that knows that mind. Read this book if you want true freedom and spontaneous creativity.”
—Deepak Chopra, MD
Aware provides practical instruction for mastering the Wheel of Awareness, a life-changing tool for cultivating more focus, presence, and peace in one’s day-to-day life.
It is an in-depth look at the science that underlies meditation’s effectiveness, this book teaches readers how to harness the power of the principle “Where attention goes, neural firing flows, and neural connection grows.” Siegel reveals how developing a Wheel of Awareness practice to focus attention, open awareness, and cultivate kind intention can literally help you grow a healthier brain and reduce fear, anxiety, and stress in your life.
Whether you have no experience with a reflective practice or are an experienced practitioner, Aware is a hands-on guide that will enable you to become more focused and present, as well as more energized and emotionally resilient in the face of stress and the everyday challenges life throws your way.
Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. is co-founder of The Center for Mindful Living in West Los Angeles and creator of the 6-month mentorship program A Course in Mindful Living. He is a psychologist, speaker and author who has published numerous articles, chapters, and blogs, including Uncovering Happiness: Overcoming Depression with Mindfulness and Self-Compassion, The Now Effect: How This Moment Can Change the Rest of Your Life and co-author of A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook, foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn and MBSR Every Day. He synthesizes the pearls of traditional psychotherapy with a progressive integration of mindfulness to achieve mental and emotional healing. He has his private practice in West Los Angeles, California.