Posts by Live Talks LA

“Old democracies tend to last, and so do rich democracies, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt point out in this searing, unsettling, and essential new book, but American democracy, which is both old and rich, is dying. In Tyranny of the Minority, they explain why, and they explain, too, how to save it.”—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths

America is undergoing a massive experiment: It is moving, in fits and starts, toward a multiracial democracy, something few societies have ever done. But the prospect of change has sparked an authoritarian backlash that threatens the very foundations of our political system. Why is democracy under assault here, and not in other wealthy, diversifying nations? And what can we do to save it?
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With the clarity and brilliance that made their first book, How Democracies Die, a global bestseller, Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt offer a coherent framework for understanding these volatile times. They draw on a wealth of examples—from 1930s France to present-day Thailand—to explain why and how political parties turn against democracy. They then show how our Constitution makes us uniquely vulnerable to attacks from within: It is a pernicious enabler of minority rule, allowing partisan minorities to consistently thwart and even rule over popular majorities. Most modern democracies—from Germany and Sweden to Argentina and New Zealand—have eliminated outdated institutions like elite upper chambers, indirect elections, and lifetime tenure for judges. The United States lags dangerously behind.
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In this revelatory book, Levitsky and Ziblatt issue an urgent call to reform our politics. It’s a daunting task, but we have remade our country before—most notably, after the Civil War and during the Progressive Era. And now we are at a crossroads: America will either become a multiracial democracy or cease to be a democracy at all.
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Terrence McNally was the longtime host of Free Forum on KPFK. He now hosts a weekly interview show on the Progressive Voices Network on TuneIn and a monthly podcast for a science institute at Harvard. All his podcasts can be found at iTunes and TerrenceMcNally.net

Virtual event only Tickets for September 24 (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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An evocative, clear-eyed, and revealing memoir by Bernie Taupin, the lyrical master and long-time collaborator of Elton John
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Bernie Taupin has worked in partnership with legendary singer, composer and pianist Elton John since 1967—one of the most successful and long-running musical collaborations in music history. Taupin wrote the lyrics for most of John’s famous hits, including “Rocket Man,” “Candle in the Wind,” “Crocodile Rock,” “Your Song,” “I’m Still Standing.” John and Taupin received the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, a lifetime achievement Grammy, an Academy Award, and many more. In 2022, Taupin was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to music. 
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In Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton, and Me, Taupin grants access to history-making events from his singular perspective. As a child growing up in the East Midlands of England, Taupin’s imagination was sparked by the American mytho-poetics of country music and cowboy culture. Before long, he found himself in the center of the glittering, star-studded fishbowl of ’70s and ’80s Beverly Hills. Readers visit Los Angeles with Bernie and Elton on the cusp of global fame; spend time in Australia at an infamous rock ‘n’ roll hotel in an endless blizzard of drugs and spend late-night hours with John Lennon, Bob Marley, and Frank Sinatra. And beyond the world of popular music, he shares memorable encounters with writers like Graham Greene, painters like Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali, and scores of notable misfits, miscreants, eccentrics, and geniuses, known and unknown. And of course, even if they’re not famous in their own right, they are stars on the page, and we discover how they inspired the indelible lyrics to songs such as “Tiny Dancer,” “Candle in the Wind,” “Bennie and The Jets,” and so many more. 
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“In Bernie Taupin’s miraculous memoir Scattershot you’ll meet legends, cowboys, geniuses, unforgettable faces in the night, shady purveyors of outrageous fortune, warriors of the heart, and most of all, Taupin himself. Hilarious and so emotionally true, Scattershot is like a letter from a cherished friend. You’ll want to keep it close, so you can read it again and again.” —Cameron Crowe 
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Cameron Crowe is a journalist, author, writer, producer, director, actor, lyricist, and playwright. He has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Grammy Award as well as a nomination for a Tony Award. Crowe famously began his career as a teenaged journalist covering rock bands on tour for Rolling Stone magazine in 1973.

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PURCHSE Virtual event only ( Sep 22) Tickets (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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The first novel from one of the original Kings of Comedy, Cedric “The Entertainer,” an engaging and entertaining crime caper that is a valentine to close-knit black families and tightly woven communities struggling to get by during the Depression and World War II.
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Actor/comedian Cedric Kyles (a.k.a. Cedric The Entertainer) career spans more than thirty years as a performer on the stage, in film, and on television. He is the star and executive producer of the CBS Television hit comedy The Neighborhood, for which he won a 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series. Cedric’s other television credits include the comedy series The Soul Man and The Steve Harvey Show.
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Kevin Frazier is an American is co-host of Entertainment Tonight and the founder and owner of the urban entertainment website HipHollywood.com.
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Flipping Boxcars: A Novel
Babe is a charismatic and widely loved man, a gambler with a gift for gab that often gets him out of tricky situations. He’s also a dreamer, something he shares with his patient and loving wife, Rosie. They both yearn for financial stability and see the land they own as insurance for future generations. But when Babe and a few comrades enlist in a scheme that improbably falls apart, he endangers the little security the family has. 
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On the verge of losing everything, what’s a family man to do?
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If you’re a gambler like Babe, you double down and risk it all for one big score—this time, a plan involving railroad boxcars.
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Will Babe succeed? Will Rosie continue to support her husband? Are the Feds on to his make-or-break scheme?
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Flipping Boxcars is Cedric “The Entertainer” at his most engaging best—a charming, fast-paced novel that pays homage to his beloved grandfather and a generation past, anchored by rich, multi-dimensional characters and oozing with irresistible charm.

*Books available for pick up at the event
*Face masks recommended
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TICKETS (virtual event only, Sep. 23)
$40 Virtual Admission + signed copy of Just Because, 
(includes shipping to US addresses)
*Event airs on Sep. 23 at 3pm PT/6pm ET
and is available on video-on-demand for five days after it airs, thru Sep. 28
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