Events
Flea with Alex Cohen
An Evening with Flea
in conversation with Alex Cohen
discussing his memoir,
Acid for the Children
Aratani Theatre
Japanese American Cultural & Community Center
244 S. San Pedro Street
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90012
**** Due to the demand for this event the event was moved from the Bootleg Theatre to the Aratani Theatre.
PURCHASE TICKETS
$45 General Admission seating + Book
$55 Reserved Section seating + Book
$20 General Admission Seating
The iconic bassist and co-founder of the Red Hot Chili Peppers tells his fascinating origin story, complete with all the dizzying highs and the gutter lows you’d want from an LA street rat turned world famous rock star.
Flea is an Australian-born American musician and occasional actor. He is best known as the bassist and co-founding member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and co-founder of The Silverlake Conservatory of Music.
“[An] electric, surprisingly moving memoir…Flea is an enlightened narrator, and this passionate, smart memoir will resonate with readers whether they’re fans of the band or not.”―Publisher’s Weekly
In Acid for the Children, Flea takes readers on a deeply personal and revealing tour of his formative years, spanning from Australia to the New York City suburbs to, finally, Los Angeles. Through hilarious anecdotes, poetical meditations, and occasional flights of fantasy, Flea deftly chronicles the experiences that forged him as an artist, a musician, and a young man. His dreamy, jazz-inflected prose makes the Los Angeles of the 1970s and 80s come to gritty, glorious life, including the potential for fun, danger, mayhem, or inspiration that lurked around every corner. It is here that young Flea, looking to escape a turbulent home, found family in a community of musicians, artists, and junkies who also lived on the fringe. He spent most of his time partying and committing petty crimes. But it was in music where he found a higher meaning, a place to channel his frustration, loneliness, and love. This left him open to the life-changing moment when he and his best friends, soul brothers, and partners-in-mischief came up with the idea to start their own band, which became the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Acid for the Children is the debut of a stunning new literary voice, whose prose is as witty, entertaining, and wildly unpredictable as the author himself. It’s a tenderly evocative coming-of-age story and a raucous love letter to the power of music and creativity from one of the most renowned musicians of our time.
Alex Cohen is a morning anchor at Spectrum News One and host of the program “Inside the Issues with Alex Cohen.” Prior to that, she has served as a public radio host, reporter and producer at NPR, Marketplace and KPCC FM.
Charles Schwab with David Lazarus
Tuesday, December 3, 2019
6:30pm
(please note the time change of this event. Previously it was in the morning)
Charles Schwab
in conversation with David Lazarus
discussing his book,
Invested: Changing Forever the Way Americans Invest
Gensler
500 South Figueroa Street
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90071
We regret that this event has been cancelled.
If you had a ticket, we have sent you an email about your forthcoming refund.
Charles Schwab is the founder, former CEO, and current chairman, of The Charles Schwab Corporation. Among the giants of the financial services industry, he is one of the most successful entrepreneurs and leaders in American business.
“Charles Schwab is a giant who transformed finance and investing for millions of Americans. His memoir is a textbook case on entrepreneurship and principled leadership.”—Hank Paulson, 74th Secretary of the Treasury
“Invested is a wonderful account of a textbook disruptor. By focusing on affordability and accessibility, what Chuck built in Charles Schwab has been a real blessing to mankind.” —Clayton Christensen, Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School; author of The Innovator’s Dilemma
The founder of The Charles Schwab Corporation recounts his ups and downs as he made stock investing, once the expensive and clubby reserve of the few, accessible to ordinary Americans.
In this deeply personal memoir, Schwab describes his passion to have Main Street participate in the growing economy as investors and owners, not only earners. Schwab opens up about his dyslexia and how he worked around and ultimately embraced it, and about the challenges he faced while starting his fledgling company in the 1970s. A year into his grand experiment in discounted stock trading, living in a small apartment in Sausalito with his wife, Helen, and new baby, he carried a six-figure debt and a pocketful of personal loans. As it turned out, customers flocked to Schwab, leaving his small team scrambling with scarce resources and no road map to manage the company’s growth.
He recounts the company’s game-changing sale to Bank of America—and how, in the end, the merger almost doomed his organization. We learn about the clever and timely leveraged buyout he crafted to regain independence; the crushing stock market collapse of 1987, just weeks after the company had gone public; the dot-com meltdown of 2000 and its reverberating aftermath of economic stagnation, layoffs, and the company’s eventual reinvention; and how the company’s focus on managing risk protected it and its clients during the financial crisis in 2008, propelling its growth.
A remarkable story of a company succeeding by challenging norms and conventions through decades of change, Invested also offers unique insights and lifelong principles for readers—the values that Schwab has lived and worked by that have made him one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time. Today, his eponymous company is one of the leading financial services firms in the world.
David Lazarus is an award-winning business columnist for the Los Angeles Times.
Sam Kashner, Ash Carter, Buck Henry and Jon Robin Baitz
Ash Carter & Sam Kashner
with Buck Henry and Jon Robin Baitz
discussing their book,
Life isn’t everything:
Mike Nichols, as remembered by 150 of his closest friends.
William Turner Gallery
Bergamot Station Arts Center
2525 Michigan Avenue,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$45 Reserved Section + Book
$20 General Admission Section
Sam Kashner is an editor-at-large at Air Mail and was for many years a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine. He is the author of Sinatraland, a notable book of both the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times and the acclaimed memoir When I Was Cool: My Life At the Jack Kerouac School and coauthor of the recent New York Times bestsellers The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters: The Tragic and Glamorous Lives of Jackie and Lee and Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century.
Ash Carter is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in Esquire, Vanity Fair, Town & Country, and the New York Times. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.
Buck Henry is a screenwriter and actor whose screenplays include three films directed by his life long friend Mike Nichols, in addition to, most famously, “The Graduate,” Buck wrote the screen adaptations for “Day of the Dolphin,” and “Catch-22.” He has also adapted Joyce Maynard’s novel “To Die For,” which starred Nicole Kidman and a young Joaquin Phoenix, as well as Peter Bogdanovich’s “What’s Up Doc,” and “Heaven Can Wait, which he co-directed with Warren Beatty. Buck was also, along with Mel Brooks the creator of the wildly popular secret agent spoof “Get Smart,” which ran on NBC from 1965 to 1970. He was also an influential writer/ performer and host of Saturday Night Live in its early and most famously influential years.
Jon Robin Baitz’s plays include The Film Society, The Substance of Fire, Three Hotels, A Fair Country, Ten Unknowns, Mizlansky/Zilinsky, a new version of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler (Broadway,2001),The Paris Letter and Other Desert Cities, which along with A Fair Country, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in drama. He is the creator of the hit ABC TV show Brothers & Sisters, which he also executive produced for the first two seasons, as well as the mini-series The Slap, for NBC. His PBS film version of Three Hotels won a Humanitas Award. Other screenplays include The Substance of Fire based on his play, and People I know, which starred.. a Guggenheim, and NEA fellow, and American Academy of Arts & Letters Award winner, a founding member and a former artistic director of New York’s Naked Angels theatre company. His new play Faraway Friends will be produced next season at Lincoln Center Theater.
Life isn’t everything: Mike Nichols, as remembered by 150 of his closest friends is an up close and personal portrait of a legendary filmmaker, theater director, and comedian, drawing on candid conversations with his closest friends in show business and the arts.
The work of Mike Nichols pervades American cultural consciousness―from The Graduate and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to Angels in America, The Birdcage, Working Girl, and Primary Colors, not to mention his string of hit plays, including Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple. If that weren’t enough, he was also one half of the timelessly funny duo Nichols & May, as well as a founding member of the original improv troupe. Over a career that spanned half a century, Mike Nichols changed Hollywood, Broadway, and comedy forever.
Most fans, however, know very little of the person behind it all. Since he never wrote his memoirs, and seldom appeared on television, they have very little sense of his searching intellect or his devastating wit. They don’t know that Nichols, the great American director, was born Mikail Igor Peschkowsky, in Berlin, and came to this country, speaking no English, to escape the Nazis. They don’t know that Nichols was at one time a solitary psychology student, or that a childhood illness caused permanent, life-altering side effects. They don’t know that he withdrew into a debilitating depression before he “finally got it right,” in his words, by marrying Diane Sawyer.
Ash Carter and Sam Kashner offer an intimate look behind the scenes of Nichols’ life, as told by the stars, moguls, playwrights, producers, comics and crewmembers who stayed loyal to Nichols for years. Life Isn’t Everything is a mosaic portrait of a brilliant and original director known for his uncommon charm, wit, vitality, and genius for friendship, this volume is also a snapshot of what it meant to be living, loving, and making art in the 20th century.
Marie Kondo
Saturday, November 16, 2019
3pm
An Afternoon with
Marie Kondo
discussing her book,
Kiki & Jax: The Life-Changing Magic of Friendship
Aratani Theatre
Japanese American Cultural & Community Center
244 S. San Pedro Street
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90012
PURCHASE TICKETS
$35 Orchestra Section + Book
$20 Balcony Section
$50 Orchestra Section for two — a parent, a child (12 and under) + 1 book
Marie Kondo is a tidying expert, bestselling author, star of Netflix’s hit show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, and founder of KonMari Media, Inc. Enchanted with organizing since her childhood, Marie began her career as a tidying consultant while a 19-year-old university student in Tokyo. Today, Marie is a renowned tidying expert helping people around the world to transform their cluttered homes into spaces of serenity, inspiration, and joy.
In her New York Times bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie took tidying to a whole new level, teaching that if you properly organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Marie has been featured in Time Magazine,t he New York Times, the Wall Street Journal,the London Times, and Vogue, and on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, TheEllen Show,and more than fifty major Japanese television and radio programs. She has also been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. She appeared at Live Talks Los Angles in April 2016 for her book, Spark Joy.
Kiki & Jax: The Life-Changing Magic of Friendship is an endearing picture book for young readers from Marie Kondo together with Salina Yoon, beloved children’s book creator. Inspired by Marie Kondo’s KonMari Method, this delightful and heartwarming tale teaches young ones how to create openings for joy in all parts of life.
Kiki and Jax are best friends, and they couldn’t be more different. Kiki is a collector, who loves her nuts, pine cones, books, and toys. Jax is a sorter who enjoys finding places for his favorite games, costumes, and sports equipment. The one thing they always agree on is how much fun they have together. But when things start to get in the way, can they make space for what has always sparked joy—each other?
A timeless story about friendship, sharing our strengths, and helping each other, Kiki & Jax will inspire children and families to tidy with kindness and make room for new experiences and joy together.
Joining her at her Live Talks Los Angeles event will be Salina Yoon, a Geisel Honor–winning author/illustrator of a dozen picture books and early readers and nearly 200 innovative novelty books for young readers. Yoon’s Penguin and Bear and Floppy picture book series have been featured in Kohl’s Cares and have sold around the world.
Moderator to be announced.
Mo Rocca with Adam Felber
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
8pm
Mo Rocca
in conversation with Adam Felber
discussing his book,
Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving
Aratani Theatre
Japanese American Cultural & Community Center
244 S. San Pedro Street
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90012
PURCHASE TICKETS
$70 Premium Section (1st three rows) + book
$53 Reserved Orchestra Section + book
$43 Orchestra Section + book
$20 General Admission
Mo Rocca is a correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning, host of The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation, and host and creator of the Cooking Channel’s My Grandmother’s Ravioli, in which he learns to cook from grandmothers and grandfathers across the country. He’s also a frequent panelist on NPR’s hit weekly quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! Mo spent four seasons as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and four seasons as a correspondent on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Mo Rocca began his career in TV as a writer and producer for the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning PBS children’s series Wishbone. He went on to write and produce for other kids series, including ABC’s Pepper Ann and Nickelodeon’s The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss. Mo is the author of Mobituaries and All the Presidents’ Pets, a historical novel about White House pets and their role in presidential decision-making.
Adam Felber is a writer, actor, and radio personality, frequently heard as a panelist or guest host on NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.” Notable credits include the novel “Schrödinger’s Ball” (Random House, 2006), “Skrull Kill Krew” (Marvel Comics, 2010), PBS’ “Wishbone” (where he first met Mo Rocca!) and – most recently – 11 seasons as a writer on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” His new podcast, “Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone,” is totally great and should be a regular part of any sensible person’s commute.
Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving
Mo Rocca has always loved obituaries—reading about the remarkable lives of world leaders, captains of industry, innovators and artists. But not every notable life has gotten the send-off it deserves. With Mobituaries—the book companion to the CBS podcast of the same name—the journalist, humorist, and history buff is righting that wrong, profiling the people who have long fascinated him—from the 20th century’s greatest entertainer…to sitcom characters gone all too soon…to a shamefully forgotten Founding Father. Even if you know the names, you’ve never understood why they matter…until now.
In these pages, Rocca chronicles the stories of the people who made a difference, but whose lives—for some reason or another—were never truly examined. There’s Thomas Paine, whose Common Sense lit the fuse for the American Revolution—and whose paltry obit summed up his life thusly: “He had lived long, did some good, and much harm.” And then there’s screen icon Audrey Hepburn. She remains a household name, but how much do we know about her wartime upbringing and how it shaped the woman we fell in love with? And what about Billy Carter and history’s unruly presidential brothers? Were they ne’er-do-well liabilities…or secret weapons?
As a correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning and the host of The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation, Rocca is an expert researcher and storyteller. He draws on these skills here. With his rigorous reporting and trademark wit, Rocca brings these men and women splendidly back to life like no one else can. Mobituaries is an insightful and unconventional account of the people who made life worth living for the rest of us, one that asks us to think about who gets remembered, and why.
Yancey Strickler
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
7:45-8:15am Continental Breakfast
8:15-9:15am Talk followed by book signing
Morning Live Talks Business Forum with
Yancey Strickler
Co-founder of Kickstarter
in conversation with
Ted Habte-Gabr,
Founder/Producer of Live Talks Los Angeles
discussing his book,
This Could Be Our Future:
A Manifesto for a More Generous World
Cross Campus–Downtown Los Angeles
800 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90017
PURCHASE TICKETS*
$42 General Admission section (includes book)
$20 General Admission section (on sale Sep 4, 10am)
* All tickets include continental breakfast from 7:45-8:15am)
Yancey Strickler is a writer and the cofounder and former CEO of Kickstarter, the Public Benefit Company that pioneered crowdfunding and has helped artists and creators bring more than 100,000 creative projects to life. (The New York Timeshas called Kickstarter “the people’s NEA.”) He left Kickstarter in 2017, and now travels the globe as an in-demand public speaker focused on recalibrating how individuals and businesses can better understand what’s valuable and in their rational self-interest. He is also a cofounder of the artist resource The Creative Independent, which publishes daily essays by artists and creators on the creative process. He previously worked as a music critic, writing for Pitchfork, The Village Voice, and Spin, among other outlets. He’s been profiled in Wired, Financial Times, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Forbes, and Vox and has given keynotes at SXSW, the Sundance Film Festival, Atlantic Ideas Festival, Techcrunch Disrupt, Web Summit, and more. He was one of Fortune’s 40 Under 40, on Vanity Fair‘s New Establishment list, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
Yancey Strickler will be interviewed by Ted Habte-Gabr, Founder & Producer of Live Talks Los Angeles.
“In this wise, and sometimes bracing, manifesto, he reveals how hidden assumptions about what matters have coarsened our culture and corroded our values. Then shows how to create organizations and institutions built less on maximizing financial gain and more on family, faith, and sustainability. This book is the conversation starter our world needs.”— Daniel H. Pink, bestselling author of When, Drive, and A Whole New Mind
“Yancey Strickler is convinced that our value system is broken. In this lucid book, he lays out a vision for how to fix it that’s both audacious and elevating. It’s a thought-provoking read for anyone who knows there’s more to life than accumulating wealth.” — Adam Grant, bestselling author of Give and Take, Originals, and coauthor of Option B
A vision for building a society that looks beyond money and toward maximizing the values that make life worth living, from the cofounder of Kickstarter.
Western society is trapped by three assumptions: 1) That the point of life is to maximize your self-interest and wealth, 2) That we’re individuals trapped in an adversarial world, and 3) That this is natural and inevitable. These ideas separate us, keep us powerless, and limit our imagination for the future. It’s time we replace them with something new.
This Could Be Our Future is about how we got here, and how we change course. While the pursuit of wealth has produced innovation and prosperity, it also established an implicit belief that the right choice in every decision is whichever option makes the most money. The answer isn’t to get rid of money; it’s to expand our concept of value. By assigning rational value to other values besides money–things like community, purpose, and sustainability–we can refocus our energies to build a society that’s generous, fair, and ready for the future. By recalibrating our definition of value, a world of scarcity can become a world of abundance.
Hopeful but firmly grounded, full of concrete solutions and bursting with creativity, This Could Be Our Future brilliantly dissects the world we live in and shows us a road map to the world we are capable of making.