Events
Marc Maron with Brendan McDonald
7pm
Marc Maron
in conversation with Brendan McDonald
Waiting for the Punch:
Words to Live by from the WTF Podcast
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 Waiting for the Punch
$20 General Admission Seat
Marc Maron is a stand-up comedian, actor, author andhost of the podcast, WTF with Marc Maron. He has appeared in hisown comedy specials on HBO, Comedy Central, EPIX and Netflix, created the IFC sitcom Maron, and stars in the Netflix OriginalSeries GLOW. He lives in Los Angeles.
Brendan McDonald is the co-creator and executiveproducer of WTF with Marc Maron. Heis an Emmy-winner and a veteran producer of television, radio and digitalmedia. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.
“I’m British, so I’m medically dead inside, but even I can’t help but open up whenever I talk to Marc. He uses his honesty like a scalpel, cutting himself open in front of anyone he’s talking to, and in doing so, invites you to do the same. “
―John Oliver
“People say stuff to [Marc] that you can’t imagine them saying to anyone else.” – Ira Glass
Each week over a million and a half listeners tune into WTF with Marc Maron to hear Marc and a guest do something remarkable: talk.
Waiting for the Punch is not simply a collection of these interviews, but instead something more wondrous: a running narrative of the world’s most recognizable names working through the problems, doubts, joys, triumphs and failures we all experience. With each chapter covering a different topic: parenting, childhood, relationships, sexuality, success, failures and others, Punch becomes a sort of everyman’s guide to life. Barack Obama candidly discusses the challenges of the presidency, and the bittersweet moments of seeing your children grow up and away from you. Bruce Springsteen speaks on the dual nature of desperation to both motivate and devastate. Amy Schumer recounts the pain of a parents’ divorce.
At once laugh-out-loud funny, heartbreakingly honest, joyous, tragic and powerful, Waiting for the Punch is a book to be read from cover to cover, but it is also one to return to again and again.
Eric Ries with Mark Suster
8pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)
Eric Ries
The Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-Term Growth
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 The Startup Way
$55 Reserved Section Seat + a copy of The Startup Way
$95 Reception (6:30-7:30pm), Reserved Seat + Book
$20 General Admission Seat (on sale Sep 25)
Eric Ries is an entrepreneur and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup, which has been translated into over thirty languages. He is the creator of the Lean Startup methodology, which has become a global movement in business, practiced by individuals and companies around the world.
He has founded a number of startups including IMVU, where he served as CTO, and he has advised on business and product strategy for startups, venture capital firms, and large companies, including GE, where he partnered with them on the FastWorks program. Eric served as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School, IDEO, and Pivotal and he is the founder and CEO of the Long-Term Stock Exchange.
Entrepreneur and bestselling author of The Lean Startup Eric Ries reveals how entrepreneurial principles can be used by businesses ranging from established companies to early-stage startups to grow revenues, drive innovation, and emerge as truly modern organizations poised to take advantage of the enormous opportunities of the 21st century.
In The Lean Startup, Eric Ries laid out the practices of successful startups – building minimal viable products (“MVPs”), extensive customer-focused testing based on a build, measure, learn method of continuous innovation, and deciding whether to persevere or pivot. In The Startup Way, he turns his attention to a whole new group of organizations: iconic multinationals like GE and Toyota, Silicon Valley tech titans like Amazon and Facebook, and the next generation of Silicon Valley upstarts like Airbnb and Twilio. Drawing on his experiences over the past five years working with these organizations, as well as nonprofits, NGOs, and governments, Ries lays out a new management system that leads to sustainable growth and long-term impact. Filled with in-the-field stories, insights, and tools, The Startup Way is an essential roadmap for any organization navigating the uncertain waters of the century ahead.
Mark Suster is a Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures, where he has led investments including Density, Imbellus, Invoca, mitú, Osmo, and Maker Studios (acquired by Disney in 2015.) Mark joined Upfront in 2007 after having previously worked with the firm for nearly 8 years as a two-time entrepreneur. Before joining Upfront, Mark was Vice President, Product Management at Salesforce.com following its acquisition of Koral, where Mark was Founder and CEO. Prior to Koral, Mark was Founder and CEO of BuildOnline, a European SaaS company that was acquired by SWORD Group. Earlier in his career, Mark spent nearly ten years working for Accenture in Europe, Japan and the U.S.
Mark received a BA in Economics from the University of California, San Diego, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Walter Isaacson with Michael Lewis
8pm (Reception: 6:30-7:30pm)
Walter Isaacson
in conversation with Michael Lewis
Leonardo da Vinci
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$50 General Admission Seat + book
$60 Reserved Section Seat +book
$95 Reception (6:30-7:30pm) + Reserved Section Seat + Book
Walter Isaacson, professor of history at Tulane, has been CEO of the Aspen Institute, chairman of CNN, and editor of Time magazine. He is the author of The Innovators; Steve Jobs; Einstein: His Life and Universe; Benjamin Franklin: An American Life; and Kissinger: A Biography, and the coauthor of The Wise Men:Six Friends and the World They Made.
Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects the art produced by history’s most creative genius to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s work was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.
“When you write biographies, whether it’s about Ben Franklin or Einstein, you discover something amazing: They are human.”
— Walter Isaacson on Book TV (Feb. 1, 2015)
— Walter Isaacson on Michael Lewis in the New York Times (Dec. 29, 2016)
Leonardo produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. With characteristic mastery, Isaacson explains how Leonardo’s life should remind us of the importance of imagination, questioning what we learn, and, like talented misfits and rebels in any era, to think different.
We welcome Michael Lewis back to our stage. His bestsellers include The Undoing Project, Flash Boys, The Big Short, The Blind Side, Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, Boomerang, The New New Thing and Panic, among others. Michael Lewis previously appeared with Malcolm Gladwell at Live Talks Los Angeles discussing his book, Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt. Watch the video. We also hosted him for his most recent book, The Undoing Project where he was interviewed by Mindy Kaling.
Gretchen Carlson with Heather McDonald
Gretchen Carlson
in conversation with Heather McDonald
discussing her book,
Be Fierce: Stop Harassment and Take Your Power Back
William Turner Gallery
Bergamot Station Arts Center
2525 Michigan Avenue,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$45 Reserved Section Seat + Book
$30 Reserved Section Seat
$20 General Admission Seat
In Be Fierce: Stop Harassment and Take Your Power Back, Gretchen shares her own experiences, as well as powerful and moving stories from women in many different careers and fields who decided they too weren’t ready to shut up and sit down. Gretchen became a voice for the voiceless.
She wrote best sellers, You’ll Never Blue Ball in this Town Again and MY INAPPROPRIATE LIFE: Some Material Not Suitable for Small Children, Nuns, or Mature Adults. Her weekly column “What Heather McDonald noticed this week” has been featured in InTouch for the last three years.
In 2015 she debuted her Showtime special ‘I Don’t Mean To Brag,’ later shown on Netflix. For seven years Heather wrote, produced and appeared on Chelsea Lately as well as it’s spin off show, After Lately. Heather was a contributing writer on the Wayans’ Brothers films White Chicks and Dance Flink.
Alice Hoffman with Janelle Brown
8pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)
An Evening with Alice Hoffman
in conversation with Janelle Brown
The Rules of Magic
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 The Rules of Magic
$55 Reserved Section Seat + a copy of The Rules of Magic
$70 Two Reserved Sections Seats + 1 copy of The Rules of Magic
$95 Reception (6;30-7:30pm), Reserved Seat + Book
$20 General Admission Seat (on sale Sep 18)
Alice Hoffman is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including The Rules of Magic, The Marriage of Opposites, Practical Magic, The Red Garden, the Oprah’s Book Club selection Here on Earth, The Museum of Extraordinary Things, and The Dovekeepers. Visit her website.
“I always felt and still feel that fairy tales have an emotional truth that is so deep that there are few things that really rival them.”
“Even in times when it’s difficult to figure out, how do you go forward, art – and books – always help.”
The Rules of Magic is Hoffman’s spellbinding prequel to Practical Magic. For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man. Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people’s thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble he day he could walk.
From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Back in New York City each begins a risky journey as they try to escape the family curse.
Thrilling and exquisite, real and fantastical, The Rules of Magic is a story about the power of love reminding us that the only remedy for being human is to be true to yourself.
Janelle Brown is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Watch Me Disappear, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, and This Is Where We Live. Her journalism and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, Elle, Self, Lenny, The Los Angeles Times, and numerous other publications. Previously, she worked as a senior writer at Salon, and began her career as a staff writer at Wired. She lives in Los Angeles.
Ed Asner and Ed. Weinberger
8pm (6:30-7:30pm Reception)
An Evening with
Ed Asner and Ed. Weinberger
in conversation with Terrence McNally
The Grouchy Historian: An Old-Time Lefty Defends Our Constitution Against Right-Wing Hypocrites and Nutjobs
All Saints Church
132 North Euclid Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91101
PURCHASE TICKETS
$43 Reserved Section Seat + Book
$30 Reserved Section Seat
$20 General Admission (on sale Sep 1)
$95 Reception* + Reserved Section Seat + Book
* Reception is at All Saints, 6:30-7:30pm
Television legend Ed Asner is well-known for his role on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and subsequent spin-off, Lou Grant. He is the winner of seven acting Emmy Awards, and has been nominated a total of twenty times. Asner has also made a name for himself as a trade unionist and a political activist. During his two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild, he was an outspoken critic of President Ronald Reagan, for his Central American policy.
Ed. Weinberger has written for Bob Hope, Richard Pryor, and Johnny Carson (for five years on The Tonight Show). He wrote for and produced The Mary Tyler Moore Show, co-created Taxi, Dear John, and The Cosby Show. He has won three Golden Globe Awards, a Peabody, and nine Emmys. In 2000, he received The Writer’s Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award.
A self-proclaimed “dauntless Democrat” from the old days, Ed Asner figures that if the right-wing is wrong about voter fraud, Obama’s death panels, and climate change, they are probably just as wrong when they interpret the Constitution and use it to defend their actions.
“Look around you at the chaos of our daily lives. I thought we should get a clear shot at what founded us. Maybe if we’re truly aware of the mixed bag that founded us, then we wouldn’t be too surprised at finding ourselves in the bed we’re in.”
Watch: 2016 Free and Equal Elections presidential debate moderated by Ed Asner
In The Grouchy Historian: An Old-Time Lefty Defends Our Constitution Against Right-Wing Hypocrites and Nutjobs, Asner leads the charge for liberals to reclaim the Constitution from the right-wingers who use it as their justification for doing whatever terrible thing they want to do, which is usually to comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted. It’s about time someone gave them hell and explained that progressives can read, too.
Terrence McNally, a strategic communications consultant who helps organizations tell better stories, hosts a weekly interview show on the Progressive Voices Network on TuneIn and a monthly podcast with Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. All podcasts can be found here. For 17 years he hosted an interview show, Free Forum, on KPFK.