Events
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer with Tim Meadows
Live Talks Los Angeles event:
in conversation with Tim Meadows
discussing her memoir,
True Gretch: What I’ve Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between
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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.
Dr. Anthony Fauci with Sean Penn (virtual event)
Live Talks Los Angeles event:
in conversation with Sean Penn
discussing his memoir,
On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service This event was taped on June 24
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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.
Walter Mosley with Conor Dougherty (virtual event)
Join us for a virtual
Live Talks Los Angeles event:
Tuesday, June 25, 2024, 6pm PT/9pm ET
An Evening with
Walter Mosley.
Farewell, Amethystine
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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.
Eric Weiner with Rainn Wilson
Live Talks Los Angeles event:
Eric Weiner
in conversation with Rainn Wilson
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discussing his books,
Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World
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& Ben & Me: In Search of a Founder’s Formula for a Long and Useful Life
at Vista Del Mar
3200 Motor Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(Free Parking available at the venue)
Face masks recommended
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$ 20 General Admission
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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.
Bill Maher with Larry Wilmore (virtual)
Live Talks Los Angeles event:
in conversation with Larry Wilmore
discussing his book,
What This Comedian Said Will Shock You
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VIRTUAL EVENT ONLY, Tuesday, June 11 (click here)
TICKETS:
$50 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 host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher has written his funniest and most opinionated book ever—a brilliantly astute and acerbically funny vivisection of American life, politics, and culture.
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Bill Maher has hosted Real Time on HBO for the last twenty-one years. Before that Maher created and hosted Politically Incorrect on ABC. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
“Whether you agree or disagree with him—and I do both—Bill Maher had proven himself to be an illuminating force in a world that values heat over light. His is a vital voice, keeping the left honest and calling the right to account for itself before the bar of reason and of decency. I’d say ‘thank God for Bill,’ but he doesn’t believe in God. So I’ll just say thanks.”—Jon Meacham
In What This Comedian Said Will Shock You, Maher has collected and revised a decade of his direct-to-camera sermons about culture, politics and what’s happening in the world.
Free speech, cops, drugs, race, religion, the generations, cancel culture, the parties, the media, show biz, romance, health—Maher covers it all. The result is a hugely entertaining work of commentary about American culture in the tradition of Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and H. L. Mencken.
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Larry Wilmore has been a television producer, actor, comedian, and writer for more than 25 years. He can currently be heard as host of Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air on The Ringer Podcast Network. The show features Wilmore’s unique mix of humor and wit as he weighs in on the issues of the week and interviews guests in the worlds of politics, entertainment, culture, sports, and beyond. Filmo and TV credit include: Jerry and Margo Go Large, alongside Bryan Cranston and Annette Benning on Paramount+; Reasonable Doubt for Hulu’s Onyx Collective; Amend: The Fight for America on Netflix; The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore on Comedy Central; Insecure on HBO; Black-ish on ABC; The Daily Show with Jon Stewart; In Living Color, The Office and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He also served as creator, writer, and executive producer of The Bernie Mac Show, which earned him a 2002 Emmy Award for “Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series” and a 2001 Peabody Award.
Tom Steyer with Jane Fonda (virtual)
Live Talks Los Angeles event:
Tom Steyer
in conversation with Jane Fonda
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discussing his book,
Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We’ll Win the Climate War
This virtual event was taped with an audience on June 5, 2024.
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VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS
June 10, 6pm PT/9pm ET (click here)
TICKETS:
$48 Virtual Admission + signed book (US Orders only)
*Includes access to watch the event on video-on-demand for five days after it airs.
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Climate investor and activist Tom Steyer shows us how we can win the war on climate.
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Tom Steyer is the coexecutive chair of Galvanize Climate Solutions, a multistrategy climate investment firm designed to unlock the generational opportunity of the energy transition. He founded America’s largest youth-voter engagement organization and cofounded a community development bank focused on justice and sustainability. He previously cofounded Farallon Capital, a pioneering hedge fund that he departed in 2012 in order to devote his time, money, and energy to climate issues.
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“In Cheaper, Faster, Better, Tom Steyer’s persuasive storytelling and contagious optimism underscore one of the most important realities of the climate crisis: If we work together, we can solve it. As a relentless climate activist and accomplished investor, Tom’s insights will help galvanize the movement that is needed to address the greatest challenge of our lifetimes.”—Al Gore, former US Vice President.
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Jane Fonda is a two-time Academy Award-winning actor, producer, author, activist, and fitness guru. Her career has spanned over 50 years, accumulating a body of film work that includes more than 50 films and significant contributions to political causes such as women’s rights, Native Americans’ rights, and environmental protection. She is a seven-time Golden Globe® winner and was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2021. She accepted The Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. Most recently, in April of 2024, Fonda accepted the TIME Magazine Earth Award.
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Most recently, she lent her voice to Grandmama in DreamWorks’ animated film Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. Before that, Fonda reunited with Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen, and Candice Bergen for Focus Features’ Book Club 2. She also starred in 80 For Brady opposite Lily Tomlin, Sally Field, and Rita Moreno, released by Paramount Pictures. She starred in Moving On by Paul Weitz for Roadside Attractions, in which Fonda starred opposite her longtime friend and colleague, Lily Tomlin. Other credits include Grace & Frankie, Netflix’s longest-running original series, for which she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2017. She also released Jane Fonda in Five Acts, a documentary for HBO chronicling her life and activism.
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Fonda continues to lead the charge on the climate emergency via Fire Drill Fridays, the national movement to protest government inaction on climate change, which she started in October 2019 in partnership with Greenpeace USA. In 2022, she launched the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, focused on defeating political allies of the fossil fuel industry. Her latest book, “What Can I Do? My Path From Climate Despair to Action,” details her personal journey with the movement and provides solutions for communities to combat the climate crisis. Notably, Jane celebrated her 85th birthday by raising $1 million for her nonprofit, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential (GCAPP).
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Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We’ll Win the Climate War
The climate is changing more rapidly than scientists predicted even a few years ago, with extreme weather already touching our everyday lives. At the same time, the clean energy revolution is forging ahead faster than nearly anyone anticipated. As Tom Steyer sees it, these two trends together create a moment like the one America faced during World War II: on the one hand, an existential threat calling for collective action; on the other, an opportunity to lead the world, protect the planet, and set the stage for a new generation of shared economic prosperity.
In 2012, Steyer walked away from the highly successful investment fund he founded to devote himself full time to climate issues, and he’s been on the front lines of the fight ever since: funding cleantech research and businesses, spearheading clean-energy ballot measures and voter registration drives, and running for president on a climate platform. Today, he leads a climate investment firm focused on accelerating climate solutions. In this accessible book, Steyer shares his own story and showcases the inspiring and innovative work of other climate leaders in the clean-energy transition. He shows us how capitalism can be used to scale climate progress, debunks many of the arguments made by fossil fuel companies, and calls on all of us to make stabilizing our planet part of our life’s work. As green technology is fast becoming cleaner and cheaper, reshaping our planet’s future—and our own—has never been more crucial or within our reach.