Tim Ferriss with Terry Crews

Friday, December 1, 2017
8pm


Tim Ferriss
in conversation with Terry Crews

discussing his new book, 
Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World

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
$75  First 4 rows + book (SOLD OUT)
 

Tim Ferriss has been called “a cross between Jack Welch and a Buddhist monk” by The New York Times. He is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of four #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, and Tools of Titans. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 200 million downloads and been selected for “Best of iTunes” three years running. His latest book is Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World.

Terry Crews is an actor and former NFL player (Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, Washington Redskins, and Philadelphia Eagles). His wide-ranging credits include the original viral Old Spice commercials, television series such as The NewsroomArrested Development, and Everybody Hates Chris, and films including White Chicks, the Expendables franchise, Bridesmaids, and The Longest Yard. He now stars on the Golden Globe Award–winning Fox sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine. In 2014, Terry released his autobiography, Manhood: How to Be a Better Man — or Just Live with One.

We All Need Mentors. Here Are More than 100 of the World’s Best.

When facing life’s questions, who do you turn to for advice? We all need mentors, particularly when the odds seem stacked against us. To find his own, four-time #1 best-selling author Tim Ferriss tracked down more than 100 eclectic experts to help him, and you, navigate life. Through short, action-packed profiles, he shares their secrets for success, happiness, meaning, and more. No matter the challenge or opportunity, something in these pages can help.
 
You will learn:
• The three books legendary investor Ray Dalio recommends most often
• Lessons and tips from elite athletes like Maria Sharapova, Kelly Slater, Dara Torres, Tony Hawk, Dan Gable, and more
• How and why Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz says no to most incoming requests
• The mental models of poker phenoms Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, Fedor Holz, and Liv Boeree
• The meditation and mindfulness practices of David Lynch, Jimmy Fallon, Sharon Salzberg, Rick Rubin, Richa Chadha, Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, and others
• The high-school loss that motivated actor Terry Crews for life . . . and how you can use the lesson
• Why TED curator Chris Anderson thinks “pursue your passion” is terrible advice
• Why renowned designer Debbie Millman believes in therapy but not in work-life balance
• How Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens went from repeated rejections to global mega-bestseller
• The new beliefs, behaviors, and habits that have most helped cryptocurrency icons (founders of Ethereum, Zcash, etc.) in the last five years
• Why Arianna Huffington recommends that you regularly scramble apps on your phone
• The “bar complex” exercise that keeps country star Tim McGraw young
• Why bestselling author Steven Pressfield believes college students should drive trucks and become cowboys
• Why comedian Patton Oswalt wishes at least one catastrophic failure on anyone in the arts
• Astrophysicist Janna Levin’s unique reframe that helps her see obstacles as opportunities
• Why actor Ben Stiller likes to dunk his head in a bucket of ice in the morning
• Why Dropbox co-founder Drew Houston’s cheat sheet for his younger self would include a tennis ball, a circle, and the number 30,000.
 
Other mentors include Neil Gaiman, Ashton Kutcher, Dita Von Teese, Marc Benioff, Evan Williams, Brandon Stanton, Esther Perel, Darren Aronofsky, Steve Aoki, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Stephanie McMahon, Craig Newmark, Gretchen Rubin, Bear Grylls, Laura Walker, Mr. Money Mustache (Pete Adeney), Linda Rottenberg, Jesse Williams, and many more.

John Mauceri

Monday, November 20, 2017
8pm 
 
John Mauceri
in conversation with Michael Abels
 
discussing his upcoming book,
Maestros and Their Music: The Art and Alchemy of Conducting

Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90404

PURCHASE TICKETS 
$45 General Admission Section Seat + a copy of Maestros and Their Music
$55 Reserved Section Seat + a copy of Maestros and Their Music
$20 General Admission Seat (on sale Sep 20)

Over five decades, John Mauceri’s extraordinary career has brought him not only to the world’s greatest opera companies and symphony orchestras, but also to the musical stages of Broadway and Hollywood, as well as the most prestigious halls of academia. Regarded as the world’s leading performer of the music of Hollywood’s émigré composers, he has taken the lead in the preservation and performance of many kinds of music and has supervised/conducted premieres by composers as diverse as Debussy, Stockhausen, Korngold, Bernstein, Hindemith, Elfman, Ives, and Shore. As an accomplished recording artist, John Mauceri has over 70 albums to his name, and is the recipient of Grammy, Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, Edison, Cannes Classique, Billboard, two Diapasons d’Or, three Emmys, and four Deutsche Schallplatten Awards.

Have you every wondered what, exactly, a conductor does? Maestros and Their Music: The Art and Alchemy of Conducting delves inside the enigmatic art and craft of conducting for a popular audience.  With candor and humor, John Mauceri shows how conducting itself is a composition, of legacy and tradition, techniques handed down from master to apprentice, and more than a trace of ineffable magic.  

Mauceri reveals how conductors approach a piece of music; what it takes to communicate solely through gesture, with sometimes hundreds of performers at once; and the occasionally glamorous, often challenging life of the itinerant maestro.  Mauceri, who worked closely with Leonard Bernstein for eighteen years, studied with Leopold Stokowski, and was on the faculty of Yale University for fifteen years, is the perfect guide to the allure and theater, passion and drudgery, rivalries and relationships of the conducting life.

Michael Abels is a composer whose concert works like “Delights & Dances” have been commissioned and performed by orchestras throughout the US. Recently his music was introduced to a much larger audience when he was tapped by filmmaker Jordan Peele to compose the score for Peele’s smash directorial debut “Get Out.” His piano tribute to Leonard Bernstein, “Iconoclasm,” is included on Lara Downes latest album “For Lenny” on the Sony Classical label in February 2018. Abels is the Music Director at New Roads School in Santa Monica, home of the Anne & Jerry Moss Theater.

Matthew Weiner with Susan Orlean

Thursday, November 16, 2017
8pm

Matthew Weiner
in conversation with Susan Orlean

discussing his novel, 
Heather, The Totality

Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90404

*This event is cancelled. All attendees will receive refunds.

Matthew Weiner has been entertaining audiences for two decades, most recently as writer, creator, executive producer, and director of Mad Men, one of television’s most honored series. He also worked as a writer and executive producer on The Sopranos, along with several comedy series, and made his feature film debut in 2014. Weiner studied at Wesleyan University and earned his MFA from USC School of Cinema and Television.

Heather, The Totality is a tour de force of control, tone and razor-slash insight. In its clear-eyed anatomist’s gaze and its remarkable combination of empathy and pitilessness. I hear echoes of Flaubert and Richard Yates, with a deeply twisted twist of Muriel Spark at her darkest.  I could not put it down.” —Author Michael Chabon

“This short novel of upper-crust anomie and class-divide obsession is a scorcher! It’s the classic noir construction: the short walk off the long ledge and the plummet to an indifferent Hell. Matthew Weiner demonically delivers the goods! Read this book in one gasping breath.” —Author James Ellroy

Video: Matthew Weiner’s creative solution for eliminating doubt

Critics have described Matthew Weiner’s writing as compelling, seductive, smart, insightful, and original. For many years we’ve been fortunate to watch his captivating, complex, and chilling American stories unfold on the screen. Now comes this master storyteller’s brilliant, unnerving debut novel, Heather, The Totality.

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, to be published in 2018.

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)

Tim O’Reilly with Krisztina “Z” Holly

Tuesday, November 14, 2017
8pm (Reception, 6:30-7:30pm)
 
Tim O’Reilly
in conversation with Krisztina “Z” Holly
 
discussing his upcoming book,
WTF? What’s the Future and Why It’s Up To Us

Cross Campus–Downtown Los Angeles
800 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90017

PURCHASE TICKETS  
$50  Reserved Section Seat + book
$95  Reception (6:30-7:30pm)* + Reserved Seat + book
$20  General Admission Seat
$30 Reserved Section Seat

Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc. the company that for the past three decades has published the books and organized the conferences where Internet entrepreneurs have learned the tools of their trade. His Safari online learning platform provides subscription based learning products to millions of software developers worldwide. O’Reilly has a history of convening conversations that reshape the computer industry. If you’ve heard the term “open source software,” “Web 2.0,”  “big data,” or “the maker movement,” you’ve experienced his ability to see and frame the future.  O’Reilly graduated from Harvard College in 1975 with a degree in Classics. He began working as a technical writer, and soon began writing and publishing his own books on technology topics. On Twitter: @timoreilly

“For anyone who wants to know how to prepare for the future – and how we might shape that future in ways that broadly benefit society, not just technological or entrepreneurial elites—WTF? is an indispensable guide.” — Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age

“Tim has been an astute observer of both the successes and the excesses of Silicon Valley. This provocative book distills the lessons he has learned about the power of technology to shape our economy and our lives.” — Hal Varian, Google chief economist

“No one is better at understanding the future than Tim O’Reilly. He has an intuitive feel and a deep knowledge of technology. This book makes sense of the astonishing transformations that are happening around us and is an indispensable guidebook to tomorrow.” — Walter Isaacson, President & CEO, The Aspen Institute

Tim O’Reilly is one of the most prescient observers of emerging technology. Inc Magazine dubbed him “the Oracle of Silicon Valley” and Wired,  “the trend spotter.” In his new book — both probing and prophetic — WTF?: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us,  he explores the burning questions posed by technology and the future.

O’Reilly shares some of the techniques his pioneering company has used to make sense of and predict innovation waves. He then applies those same techniques to provide a framework for thinking about how technologies such as on-demand services, networks and platforms, and artificial intelligence are changing the nature of business, education, government, financial markets, and the economy as a whole. Finally, he examines the choices we have to make a society moving forward in this brave new world.  

In this powerful combination of memoir, business strategy guide, and analysis of how technology affects jobs and the economy, O’Reilly draws on lessons from networked platforms including Amazon, Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Uber and Lyft to show how our economy and financial markets have also become increasingly managed by algorithms.  O’Reilly believes that a world ruled by machines that are hostile to humanity is not a distant possibility. Complex systems evolve from much simpler forebears, and the design of the systems we are building today is already shaping the future. He makes the case that income inequality, declining upward mobility, and job losses due to technology are the result of design choices we have made in the algorithms that manage our markets. Just as Google constantly updates its algorithms in pursuit of relevant search and ad results, and as Facebook wrestles with how to rethink its algorithms for user engagement in response to fake news, he believes we must rewrite those algorithms if we wish to create a more human-centered future. 

The digital revolution has transformed the world, upending centuries-old companies and business models. Now, it is restructuring every business, every job, and every sector of society. Yet the biggest changes are still ahead. 

MIT-trained engineer, tech entrepreneur and adventurer, Krisztina “Z” Holly is the host of The Art of Manufacturing podcast and Founder & Chief Instigator of LA Mayor Garcetti’s MAKE IT IN LA initiative. She is best known for curating and hosting the first ever TEDx (TEDxUSC) in 2009 and founding two innovation centers at MIT and USC. She has an instinct for finding and amplifying undiscovered talent and ideas, whether it’s helping dozens of faculty spin out new venture-backed startups, or curating dozens of speakers whose talks have garnered 14 million views online; ten have appeared on TED.com.

Early on, she played key roles at tech startups, such as Stylus innovation (acquired by Artisoft), Direct Hit Technologies (acquired by Ask Jeeves), and Jeeves Solutions (acquired by Kanisa). She served as Vice Provost for Innovation at USC and has been advisor to nearly two dozen companies and organizations, including the River LA, World Economic Forum, and the Obama Administration.

She is an avid traveler, backcountry skier, mountain biker, and the quartermaster of the Black Rock City airport logistics team in her spare time. She has two engineering degrees from MIT and currently lives and plays in Los Angeles.

Chris Matthews with Frank Buckley

Monday, November 13, 2017
8pm 
 
Chris Matthews
in conversation with Frank Buckley
 
discussing his upcoming book,
Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit

Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90404

PURCHASE TICKETS 
$45 General Admission Seat + a copy of Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit
$20 General Admission Seat


Chris Matthews
is the host of MSNBC’s Hardball. He is the author of Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero; Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked; Kennedy and Nixon; Hardball; and now Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit.

With his bestselling biography Jack Kennedy, Chris Matthews shared a new look at one of America’s most beloved Presidents and the patriotic spirit that defined him. Now, with Bobby Kennedy, Matthews returns with a gripping, in-depth, behind-the-scenes portrait of one of the great figures of the American twentieth century.

Overlooked by his father, and overshadowed by his war-hero brother, Bobby Kennedy was the perpetual underdog. When he had the chance to become a naval officer like Jack, Bobby turned it down, choosing instead to join the Navy as a common sailor. It was a life changing experience that led him to connect with voters from all walks of life: young or old, black or white, rich or poor. They were the people who turned out for him in his 1968 campaign. RFK would prove himself to be the rarest of politicians—both a pragmatist who knew how to get the job done and an unwavering idealist who could inspire millions.

Drawing on extensive research and interviews, Matthews pulls back the curtain on the public and private worlds of Robert Francis Kennedy. He shines a light on all the important moments of his life, from his early years and his start in politics to his crucial role as attorney general in his brother’s administration and his tragic run for president. This definitive book brings Bobby Kennedy to life like never before and is destined to become a political classic.

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.

C. Morgan Babst with Scott Timberg

Sunday, November 12, 2017
3:00 pm 
Presented in association with
Santa Monica Public Library
 
An Afternoon with
C. Morgan Babst
in conversation with Scott Timberg
 
discussing the writing life and her debut novel,
The Floating World


Martin Luther King, Jr. Auditorium
Santa Monica Public Library
601 Santa Monica Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90401

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.

 RSVP HERE  for free tickets to this event  
>>> Pre-purchasing the book includes a Reserved Seat ($29)
Purchase book/Reserved Seat 

C. Morgan Babst is a native of New Orleans. She studied writing at NOCCA, Yale, and NYU, and her essays and short fiction have appeared in such journals as Garden and Gun, The Oxford American, Guernica, the Harvard Review, and the New Orleans Review. The Floating World is her first novel.

“This powerful and lyrical novel captures the emotional currents in New Orleans after Katrina. With an authentic and sensitive voice, Morgan Babst explores family, race, class, and the essence of disruption.”
—Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci

“Set in New Orleans, this important and powerful novel follows the Boisdoré family . . . in the months after Katrina. A profound, moving and authentically detailed picture of the storm’s emotional impact on those who lived through it.” —People

In this dazzling debut about family, home, and grief, C. Morgan Babst takes readers into the heart of Hurricane Katrina and the life of a great city.

As the storm is fast approaching the Louisiana coast, Cora Boisdoré refuses to leave the city. Her parents, Joe Boisdoré, an artist descended from freed slaves who became the city’s preeminent furniture makers, and his white “Uptown” wife, Dr. Tess Eshleman, are forced to evacuate without her, setting off a chain of events that leaves their marriage in shambles and Cora catatonic—the victim or perpetrator of some violence mysterious even to herself.

This mystery is at the center of Babst’s haunting and profound novel. Cora’s sister, Del, returns to New Orleans from the successful life she built in New York City to find her hometown in ruins and her family deeply alienated from one another. As Del attempts to figure out what happened to her sister, she must also reckon with the racial history of the city and the trauma of a disaster that was not, in fact, some random act of God but an avoidable tragedy visited on New Orleans’s most vulnerable citizens. Separately and together, each member of the Boisdoré clan must find the strength to remake home in a city forever changed.

The Floating World is the Katrina story that needed to be told—one with a piercing, unforgettable loveliness and a vivid, intimate understanding of this particular place and its tangled past.

Scott Timberg is a Los Angeles-based arts and culture writer. A former Los Angeles Times and Salon staffer, he writes these days for The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Paris Review online, LMU Magazine, and the New York Times. Timberg edited, with Dana Gioia, the anthology The Misread City: New Literary Los Angeles (Red Hen). He’s the author, most recently, of Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class (Yale University Press), and runs the accompanying ArtsJournal blog CultureCrash. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMisreadCity.