Events

VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS (click here)
Monday , September 16, 2024, 6pm PT/9pm ET
TICKETS:
$45 Virtual Admission + signed book (includes shipping to US addresses)
*Includes access to watch the event on September 16 at 6pm PT/9pm ET and on video-on-demand for five days after it airs
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Neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author of This Is Your Brain on Music Daniel J. Levitin reveals the deep connections between music and healing.
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Daniel J. Levitin is a neuroscientist, musician, and the author of four New York Times best-selling books, including This Is Your Brain on Music. He is dean emeritus at Minerva University, professor emeritus at McGill University, and visiting professor at UCLA. A saxophonist, guitarist, bass player, and vocalist, he has worked as a producer and recording consultant. He lives in California.

Stewart Copeland recruited Sting and Andy Summers in 1977 and founded The Police. He is an acclaimed film composer, and works across the worlds of opera, ballet, chamber, and world music. He has sold more than 60 million records worldwide and won numerous awards, including seven Grammy awards—most recently a 2023 Grammy for Best Immersive Audio Album and a 2022 Best New Age award for Divine Tides, a collaboration with Indian musician Ricky Kej. His film and tv score credits include Francis Coppola’s Rumble Fish, Oliver Stone’s Wall St. and Talk Radio, Silent Fall, Highlander II—The Quickening, The Equalizer, Dead Like Me, among many others. Copeland’s operatic works include two based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe—The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Hart; The Invention of Morel; Electric Saint; Satan’s Fall and The Witches Seed, his 2022 collaboration with creative partner and Pretenders lead singer/songwriter Chrissie Hynde.
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“For many years I have wondered why a bunch of frequencies organized into a piece of music has the ability, even without words, to make the listener cry and become emotional. Although I know this happens to me and many people, I have often wondered how this can be. Dr. Levitin, in this latest book, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine, has some fascinating insights into this great phenomenon.”
― Paul McCartney
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Music is one of humanity’s oldest medicines. From the Far East to the Ottoman Empire, Europe to Africa and the pre-colonial Americas, many cultures have developed their own rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, promote healing, and calm the mind.
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In his latest work, neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author Daniel J. Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music) explores the curative powers of music, showing us how and why it is one of the most potent therapies today. He brings together, for the first time, the results of numerous studies on music and the brain, demonstrating how music can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, to cognitive injury, depression, and pain.
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Levitin is not your typical scientist―he is also an award-winning musician and composer, and through lively interviews with some of today’s most celebrated musicians, from Sting to Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama, he shares their observations as to why music might be an effective therapy, in addition to plumbing scientific case studies, music theory, and music history. The result is a work of dazzling ideas, cutting-edge research, and jubilant celebration. I Heard There Was a Secret Chordhighlights the critical role music has played in human biology, illuminating the neuroscience of music and its profound benefits for those both young and old.

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VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS (click here)
Monday, July 29, 2024, 6pm PT/9pm ET
TICKETS:
$45 Virtual Admission + signed book (includes shipping to US addresses only)
*Includes access to watch the event on July 29 at 6pm PT/9pm ET and on video-on-demand for five days after it airs
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From the Thurber Prize–winning author of New Teeth, hailed as “a triumph of sustained humor” (Sarah Lyall, New York Times Book Review), comes a hilarious and powerful collection of short stories chronicling the plight of aging millennials. ​
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Simon Rich is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. He has written for Saturday Night Live, Pixar, and The Simpsons and is the creator of the TV shows Man Seeking Woman and Miracle Workers, which he based on his books. His other collections include Ant Farm; Spoiled Brats; Hits and Misses, which won the Thurber Prize for American Humor; and New Teeth. 
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In Glory Days, Thurber Prize-winning author Simon Rich, “one of the funniest writers in America” (NPR), is back with a new batch of can’t-miss stories. 
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Super Mario turns forty and is forced to “take-a stock” of his life and how “messed up it’s-a become.” Goliath struggles to control the media narrative in the lead-up to his death match against David, a small, beloved child. And a long-discarded participation trophy reminisces about the glorious field day in 1993, when he wound up in the arms of a jubilant, asthmatic Simon Rich. 
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High-stakes and heartfelt, Glory Days mourns the death of youthful innocence and hails the beginning of something approximating wisdom.
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Kristen Schaal was an Emmy nominee for her voiceover performance in the Netflix series BoJack Horseman. Recent credits conclude: the FX series What We Do in the Shadows, as well as Hulu’s The Mysterious Benedict Society. Schaal voices the character of Louise in the Fox animated series Bob’s Burgers, which is currently in its 14th season. Previously Schaal starred in the Fox series The Last Man on Earth; the original My Spy; Bill & Ted Face the Music, and Boundaries. Schaal’s other film credits include All Nighter, The Boss, Dinner for Schmucks, and A Walk in the Woods. In addition to voicing the role of Trixie in Toy Story 3 and 4, Schaal won an Annie Award for her work on Gravity Falls and lent her voice to characters on The Simpsons. Her other television credits include appearances on 30 Rock, Flight of the Conchords, Mad Men and Modern Family. She was the Senior Women’s Issues Correspondent for The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and also had an hour special on Comedy Central, Live at the Fillmore. As a theater performer, Schaal won the Lucille Lortel Award for her role in The Coward at Lincoln Center Theater. She has co-authored a sex guide, The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex, with husband and Daily Show writer Rich Blomquist.

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VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS (click here)
Monday , July 22, 2024, 6pm PT/9pm ET
TICKETS:
$45 Virtual Admission + signed book (includes shipping to US addresses only)
*Includes access to watch the event on July 22 at 6pm PT/9pm ET and on video-on-demand for five days after it airs
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From trailblazing Michigan governor and rising Democratic star Gretchen Whitmer comes an unconventionally honest, personal, and funny account of her remarkable life and career, full of insights that guided her through a global pandemic, showdowns with high-profile bullies, and even a kidnapping and assassination plot.
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Gretchen Whitmer is the governor of Michigan. Known for her bold and plainspoken style, Whitmer is a national voice on the rights of women, voters, and the LGBTQ+ community. She rose to national prominence for her leadership in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, when her efforts to save lives in the state earned her the nickname “That Woman from Michigan” from the former president. Later that year, a domestic terrorist cell began planning to kidnap and kill her, a plot that was foiled by the FBI and state police. Whitmer is a lifelong Michigander who first ran for office at age twenty-nine, has served in both state houses, and has never lost an election. She is the proud mother of two daughters, a huge Detroit Lions fan, and the subject of the song “Big Gretch” by rapper GMac Cash.
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Tim Meadows is an actor, writer comedian who was one of the longest-running cast members on Saturday Night Live, where he appeared for ten seasons. Meadows  played the school principal in the hit comedy Mean Girls. Other credits include: Grown Ups, Grown Ups 2, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, The Goldbergs, Schooled, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Office, Miracle Workers, No Activity. Tim has also voiced one of the main characters on Bob’s Burgers. Most recently, Tim starred in the Peacock series Poker Face, Disney+’s The Mandalorian, Comedy Central’s animated series Digman!, FOX’s animated series Grimsburg, and A24’s Dream Scenario with Nicolas Cage. 
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“True Gretch is filled with wonderful stories detailing an important public servant’s commitment to doing what is right for the people. This book is both a roadmap for how to get things done and a source of inspiration for engaged citizens in our democracy. It is also funny, bringing much-needed joy to the reader during a time of great solemnity.” — Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives
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In this candid memoir, Whitmer reveals the principles and instincts that have shaped her extraordinary career, from her early days as a lawyer and legislator and her 2018 election as governor of Michigan, to her bold and innovative actions as she led the state through a series of unprecedented crises. Her motto in politics, she writes, is to “get shit done.”
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Whitmer shares the lessons in resilience that steered her through some of the most challenging events in Michigan’s history, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, a five-hundred-year flood, the rise of domestic terrorism, and the fierce fight to protect reproductive rights.
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Along the way, she tells stories about the outsize characters in her family, her lifelong clumsy streak, the wild comments she’s heard on the campaign trail, her self-deprecating social media campaigns (including her star turn as a talking potato with lipstick), and the slyly funny tactics she deploys to neutralize her opponents.
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True Gretch is not only a compelling account of her remarkable journey, but also a blueprint for anyone who wants to make a difference in their community, their country, or the world. It is a testament to the power of humor, perseverance, and compassion in the face of darkness.

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VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS (click here)
Saturday, June 29, 3pm PT/6pm ET
TICKETS:
$50 Virtual Admission + signed book (includes shipping to US addresses)
*Includes access to watch the event on June 29 at 6pm PT/9pm ET and on video-on-demand for five days after it airs
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The memoir by the doctor who became a beacon of hope for millions through the COVID pandemic, and whose six-decade career in high-level public service put him in the room with seven presidents.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci served as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health from 1984 to 2022. He also served as the Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden. He is currently a Distinguished University Professor at Georgetown University with a joint appointment in the School of Medicine and the McCourt School of Public Policy. He has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, and the Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service and has been awarded 62 honorary doctoral degrees, and is the author, coauthor, or editor of more than 1,400 scientific publications.
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Sean Penn is a two-time Academy Award-winning actor, filmmaker and author.  In January 2010, Penn established J/P HRO in the immediate aftermath of the catastrophic Haiti earthquake. The emergency relief nonprofit was renamed CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) and continues to bring immediate aid and recovery to underserved communities across the globe. 
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Anthony Fauci is arguably the most famous doctor in the world today. His role guiding America sanely and calmly through Covid earned him the trust of millions during one of the most terrifying periods in modern American history, but this is only part of his story.  Over five decades in public health, he’s played a crucial role in researching HIV and bringing AIDS into sympathetic public view and provided leadership in navigating the Ebola, SARS, West Nile, and anthrax crises.
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His memoir reaches back to his boyhood in Brooklyn, New York, and carries through decades of caring for critically ill patients, navigating the whirlpools of Washington politics, and behind-the-scenes advising and negotiating with seven presidents on key issues from global AIDS relief to infectious disease preparedness at home. On Call is an inspiration for readers who admire and are grateful to him and for those who want to emulate him in public service. He is the embodiment of “speaking truth to power,” with dignity and results.

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VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS,
June 25, 6pm PT/9pm ET (click here)
TICKETS:
$45 Virtual Admission + book
*Includes access to watch the event on video-on-demand for five days after it airs. Ticket includes shipping to US addresses only.
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From “master of the genre” (Washington Post) Walter Mosley, Detective Easy Rawlins’ latest client sends him down a warren of memory and nostalgia—blinding him to reason and risk.
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Walter Mosley is one of America’s most celebrated modern-day crime fiction writers. In 2020, he received the 2020 National Book Award’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He has been named a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America. His work has been translated into 25 languages. As an executive producer, he adapted his novel The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey for AppleTV+ and serves as a writer and executive producer for FX’s Snowfall.
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This will be Walter Mosley’s fifth appearance at Live Talks LA. In 2019, we hosted him in conversation with Pulitzer prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen on the art of writing fiction. Here’a the video.
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Easy Rawlins returns in Walter Mosley’s latest, Farewell, Amethystine, set in January 1970. All is right in the world of LA’s premiere Black detective… and then Amethystine Stoller arrives. Her ex-husband is missing. And as Easy takes his first step in the investigation, he trips and falls into the memory of things past— loss, love, a world war, and a hunger that has eaten at him since he was a Black boy on his own on the streets of Fifth Ward, Houston, Texas.
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Easy finds himself pressed into a reckoning and has to make a choice that will almost certainly hasten a permanent descent, one that might sunder his soul.
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Conor Dougherty is a reporter at the New York Times who is a California native and based in Los Angeles. He covers housing and has been a fan of the Easy series for 20 years and read every book.

VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS
June 18, 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.
*Signed copies of Eric Weiner’s books and Rainn Wilson’s book can be purchased in this link.
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Now a new series on Peacock with Rainn Wilson, The Geography of Bliss is part travel memoir, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide that takes the viewer across the globe to investigate not what happiness is, but WHERE it is.
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Eric Weiner is author of the New York Times bestsellers The Geography of Bliss (now a docu-series featuring Rainn Wilson) and The Geography of Genius, as well as the critically acclaimed Man Seeks God and The Socrates Express. A former international correspondent for NPR, his work has appeared in The Atlantic, National Geographic, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the anthology Best American Travel Writing. He lives with his family and a menagerie of animals in the Washington, D.C. area. For more information, visit his website.
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Rainn Wilson is an Emmy nominated and SAG award-winning actor best known for playing the inimitable “Dwight Schrute” for nine seasons on NBC’s, The Office.  His robust and diverse career includes television, movies, Broadway, unscripted series, animation, and podcasts. He has an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts and spent 10 years doing theatre in NYC before moving to LA. In addition, he is also a NYT Bestselling author, having written The Bassoon King, SoulPancake: Chew on Life’s Big Questions and his latest book Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution. Rainn founded a digital media company SoulPancake and co-founded Lide Haiti, an education non-profit that empowers women and girls through the arts and scholarships in rural Haiti. 

The Geography of Bliss
Are people in Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Qatar, awash in petrodollars, find joy in all that cash? Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North Carolina so damn happy?  In a unique mix of travel, psychology, science and humor, Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions.
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Ben & Me: In Search of a Founder’s Formula for a Long and Useful Life
Not a conventional biography, Ben & Me is a guide to living and thinking well, as Ben Franklin did. It is also about curiosity, diligence, and, most of all, the elusive goal of self-improvement. As Weiner follows Franklin from Philadelphia to Paris, Boston to London, he attempts to uncover Ben’s life lessons, large and small. We learn how to improve a relationship with someone by inducing them to do a favor for you—a psychological phenomenon now known as The Ben Franklin Effect. We learn about the printing press (the Internet of its day), early medicine, diplomatic intrigue and, of course, electricity. And we learn about ethics, persuasion, humor, regret, appetite, and so much more.
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At a time when history is either neglected or contested, Weiner argues we have much to learn from the past and that we’d all be better off if we acted and thought a bit more like Ben did, even if he didn’t always live up to his own high ideals. Engaging, smart, moving, quirky, Ben & Me distills the essence of Franklin’s ideas into grounded, practical wisdom for all of us.