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Thursday, May 1, 2014
8:00pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)

An Evening with Dave Barry
YOU CAN DATE BOYS WHEN YOU’RE FORTY:
Dave Barry on Parenting and Other Topics He Knows Very Little About

William Turner Gallery
Bergamot Station Arts Center
2525 Michigan Avenue,
Santa Monica, CA 90404

PURCHASE TICKETS
$20 General Admission
$45 Includes Barry’s book + Reserved seat
$95 Includes pre-reception + Barry’s book + Reserved Seat

Dave Barry is the author of more than thirty books, including such national bestsellers as the nonfiction I’ll Mature When I’m Dead, Dave Barry’s Money Secrets, Dave Barry Turns 50, and Dave Barry’s Guide to Guys, as well as the novels Insane City, Tricky Business, Big Trouble, Lunatics (with Alan Zweibel), and his Peter Pan prequels (with Ridley Pearson).  Two of his books have been made into movies (Big Trouble and Dave Barry’s Guide to Guys), and a play based on his first Peter Pan book, Peter and the Starcatcher, is currently on a national tour after winning five Tony Awards on Broadway. For a while, his life was even a television series, Dave’s World.  He plays guitar in the all-author rock band, The Rock Bottom Remainders. For many years he wrote a nationally syndicated humor column, which won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

Dave Barry’s new book is a brilliantly funny exploration of the twin mysteries of parenthood and families. In his New York Times–bestselling I’ll Mature When I’m Dead, Dave Barry embarked on the treacherous seas of adulthood, to hilarious results. What comes next? Parenthood, of course, and families.

In uproarious, brand-new pieces, Barry tackles everything from family trips, bat mitzvah parties and dating (he’s serious about that title: “When my daughter can legally commence dating—February 24, 2040—I intend to monitor her closely, even if I am deceased”) to funeral instructions (“I would like my eulogy to be given by William Shatner”), the differences between male and female friendships, the deeper meaning of Fifty Shades of Grey, and a father’s ultimate sacrifice: accompanying his daughter to a Justin Bieber concert (“It turns out that the noise teenaged girls make to express happiness is the same noise they would make if their feet were being gnawed off by badgers”).

Let’s face it: families not only enrich our lives every day, they drive us completely around the bend. Thank goodness we have Dave Barry as our guide!

Thursday, April 10, 2014

8:00pm (reception, 6:30-7:30pm)

Michael Lewis
in conversation with Malcolm Gladwell

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt

The Alex Theatre
216 North Brand Boulevard
Glendale, CA 91203

SALES ENDED ON THIS SITE, VISIT ALEX BOX OFFICE SITE.
$22 General Admission
$45 Reserved Seats* + Lewis’s book, Flash Boys
$115 Premium Seats* + Reception, (6:30-7:30pm) + Lewis’ and Gladwell’s SOLD OUT

A book signing follows the event.

* At check in, you will get a ticket that gives you access to a reserved block of seats
** At check in, you will get a ticket that gives you access to the premium reserved block of seats
All tickets include Alex Theatre restoration facility fee of $2.00

Michael Lewis on 6o Minutes March 30.
Michael Lewis also in The Financial Times, New York Magazine, on MarketWatch

Michael Lewis is the author of the best-sellers The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine; The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game; Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game; Liar’s Poker; Boomerang; The New New Thing and Panic, among others.

Michael Lewis’ upcoming book Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt offers a ringside seat to the ways of Wall Street.  His past works on the financial industry are game-changing examinations of the most important financial issues of our time.  Come hear him — in conversation with Malcolm Gladwell — reveal what he’s been investigating.  We’re thrilled to welcome Gladwell back to Live Talks Los Angeles for his third visit.

Four years after his #1 bestseller The Big Short, Michael Lewis returns to Wall Street to report on a high-tech predator stalking the equity markets.

Flash Boys is about a small group of Wall Street guys who figure out that the U.S. stock market has been rigged for the benefit of insiders and that, post–financial crisis, the markets have become not more free but less, and more controlled by the big Wall Street banks. Working at different firms, they come to this realization separately; but after they discover one another, the flash boys band together and set out to reform the financial markets. This they do by creating an exchange in which high-frequency trading—source of the most intractable problems—will have no advantage whatsoever.

The characters in Flash Boys are fabulous, each completely different from what you think of when you think “Wall Street guy.” Several have walked away from jobs in the financial sector that paid them millions of dollars a year. From their new vantage point they investigate the big banks, the world’s stock exchanges, and high-frequency trading firms as they have never been investigated, and expose the many strange new ways that Wall Street generates profits.

The light that Lewis shines into the darkest corners of the financial world may not be good for your blood pressure, because if you have any contact with the market, even a retirement account, this story is happening to you. But in the end, Flash Boys is an uplifting read. Here are people who have somehow preserved a moral sense in an environment where you don’t get paid for that; they have perceived an institutionalized injustice and are willing to go to war to fix it.

After graduating from Princeton University and the London School of Economics, Lewis worked on the bond desk at Salomon Brothers, an experience he recounted in Liar’s Poker, his first book. He left the financial world to become a journalist, writing on politics, finance and more for The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, Slate and other publications. He is currently a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He is also the author of Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer with The New Yorker since 1996. He is the bestselling author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, and What the Dog Saw and most recently, David and Goliath. In 2005, he was named one of Time‘s 100 Most Influential People.  From 1987 to 1996, he was a reporter with the Washington Post, where he covered business, science, and then served as the newspaper’s New York City bureau chief. He graduated from the University of Toronto, Trinity College, with a degree in history. He was born in England, grew up in rural Ontario, and now lives in New York City.

We welcome Malcolm Gladwell back to Live Talks Los Angeles. We recently hosted him discussing David and Goliath with Tim Long (see the video) and also with Virginia Postrel at our Live Talks Business Forum (see the video).  He also interviewed David Goldhill at Live Talks Los Angeles in February 2013 on fixing healthcare in America. Here’s the video.

Thursday, March 13, 2014
7:30pm (Reception 6:15-7:30pm)

An Evening with Misty Copeland
Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina

William Turner Gallery
Bergamot Station Arts Center
2525 Michigan Avenue,
Santa Monica, CA 90404

PURCHASE TICKETS
$20 General Admission — SOLD OUT
$40 Includes Copeland’s book + Reserved seat — SOLD OUT
$95 Includes pre-reception + Copeland’s book + Reserved Seat  – SOLD OUT

Misty Copeland in the news…
— New York Times, Feb 21, A Singular Ballerina’s Multiple Paths

When Misty Copeland placed her hands on the barre at an after-school community center, no one expected the undersized, anxious thirteen-year-old to become a ground­breaking ballerina.

When she discovered ballet, Misty was living in a shabby motel room, struggling with her five siblings for a place to sleep on the floor. A true prodigy, she was dancing en pointe within three months of taking her first dance class and performing professionally in just over a year — a feat unheard of for any classical dancer.   But when Misty became caught between the control and comfort she found in the world of ballet and the harsh realities of her own life (culmi­nating in a highly publicized custody battle), she had to choose to embrace both her identity and her dreams, and find the courage to be one of a kind.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in San Pedro, California, she began her ballet studies at the late age of thirteen. At fifteen she won first place in the Music Center (Los Angeles) Spotlight Awards. She studied at the San Francisco Ballet School, American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive on full scholarship and was declared ABT’s National Scholar in 2000.

Misty joined ABT’s Studio Company in September 2000, joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in April 2001 and in 2007 made history by becoming their third African American Female Soloist and first in two decades.

In 2008, Misty was honored with the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Arts, a two-year fellowship awarded to young artists who exhibit extraordinary talent providing them additional resources in order to attain their full potential.

Performing a variety of classical and contemporary roles, Misty’s most important role to date is the title role of “The Firebird” in “Firebird”, created on her in 2012 with new choreography by sought after choreographer Alexei Ratmansky.

She was honored with an induction into the Boys & Girls Club National Hall of Fame in May 2012 and received the “Breakthrough Award” from the Council of Urban Professionals in April 2012. She was named National Youth of the Year Ambassador for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America in June 2013. She received the Young, Gifted & Black honor at the 2013 Black Girls Rock! Awards. Her endorsements past and present include American Express, COACH, Diet Dr. Pepper, BlackBerry, Proactiv, Payless, Capezio, Bloch International, Sansha, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and LaVazza Coffee. In 2014, Under Armour recently announced Misty as one of the new faces of their women’s line.

Her memoir, Life in Motion, is a story of passion and grace for anyone who has dared to dream of a different life. With an insider’s unique point of view, Misty opens a window into the life of a professional bal­lerina who lives life center stage: from behind the scenes at her first auditions to her triumphant roles in some of the most iconic ballets. She also delves deeper to reveal the desire and drive that made her dreams reality.  Visit her website.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014
8:00pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)

An Evening with Anna Quindlen
in conversation with Meghan Daum
discussing  her novel, Still Life with Bread Crumbs

Ann and Jerry Moss Theater
Herb Alpert Educational Village
New Roads School
3131 Olympic Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 9o404

PURCHASE TICKETS 
$20 General Admission, $30 Reserved Seats
$40 Includes Quindlen’s book + Reserved seat
$95 Includes Pre-event reception + book + Reserved Seats

ANNA QUINDLEN is a novelist and journalist whose work has appeared on fiction, nonfiction, and self-help bestseller lists. Her book A Short Guide to a Happy Life has sold more than a million copies. While a columnist at The New York Times she won the Pulitzer Prize and wrote two collections, Living Out Loud and Thinking Out Loud. Her Newsweek columns were collected in Loud and Clear. She is the author of six novels: Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue, Blessings, Rise and Shine, and Every Last One. Her memoir Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, published in 2012, was a #1 New York Times bestseller.  Visit her website.

Still Life with Bread Crumbs begins with an imagined gunshot and ends with a new tin roof. Between the two is a wry and knowing portrait of Rebecca Winter, a photographer whose work made her an unlikely heroine for many women. Her career is now descendent, her bank balance shaky, and she has fled the city for the middle of nowhere. There she discovers, in a tree stand with a roofer named Jim Bates, that what she sees through a camera lens is not all there is to life.

Still Life with Bread Crumbs is a deeply moving and often very funny story of unexpected love, and a stunningly crafted journey into the life of a woman, her heart, her mind, her days, as she discovers that life is a story with many levels, a story that is longer and more exciting than she ever imagined.

MEGHAN DAUM has been an opinion columnist for The Los Angeles Times for more than eight years. She is the author of three books, the essay collection My Misspent Youth, the novel The Quality of Life Report, and the memoir Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House. She has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, and Vogue and has contributed to public radio’s Morning Edition and This American Life. In 2013 she served as a mentor in PEN USA’s Emerging Voices program and she has taught at Cal-Arts and Columbia University. Her next book, a collection of original essays about sentimentality in American life, will be published this fall.

Tuesday,  May 6, 2014
8:00pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)

An Evening with Amy Tan
in conversation with Lisa See
discussing the writing life and her novel, The Valley of Amazement

Ann and Jerry Moss Theater
Herb Alpert Educational Village
New Roads School
3131 Olympic Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 9o404

PURCHASE TICKETS 
$20 General Admission
$30 Reserved Seats — SOLD OUT
$45 Includes Tan’s book + Reserved seat
$95 Includes Pre-event reception + book + Reserved Seats

Amy Tan is the author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life, and two children’s books, The Moon Lady and Sagwa, which has now been adapted as a PBS production. Tan was also a co-producer and co-screenwriter of the film version of The Joy Luck Club, and her essays and stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. Her work has been translated into thirty-five languages.  Visit her website.

Amy Tan’s The Valley of Amazement is a sweeping, evocative epic of two women’s intertwined fates and their search for identity, that moves from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese village.

Spanning more than forty years and two continents, The Valley of Amazement resurrects pivotal episodes in history: from the collapse of China’s last imperial dynasty, to the rise of the Republic, the explosive growth of lucrative foreign trade and anti-foreign sentiment, to the inner workings of courtesan houses and the lives of the foreign “Shanghailanders” living in the International Settlement, both erased by World War II.

A deeply evocative narrative about the profound connections between mothers and daughters,The Valley of Amazement returns readers to the compelling territory of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. With her characteristic insight and humor, she conjures a story of inherited trauma, desire and deception, and the power and stubbornness of love.

Lisa See is the New York Times bestselling author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls, and Dreams of Joy. She has also written a mystery series that takes place in China, as well as On Gold Mountain, which is about her Chinese-American family. Her next novel, China Dolls, will be released by Random House in June 2014.  Ms. See serves as a Los Angeles City Commissioner on the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Monument Authority.  She was honored as National Woman of the Year by the Organization of Chinese American Women in 2001 and was the recipient of the Chinese American Museum’s History Makers Award in Fall 2003. To learn more, please visit her web site at www.LisaSee.com.

Tuesday,  March 25, 2014
8:00pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)

Annabelle Gurwitch
in conversation with Jane Kaczmarek

I See You Made an Effort:
Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories from the Edge of 50

Ann and Jerry Moss Theater
Herb Alpert Educational Village
New Roads School
3131 Olympic Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 9o404

PURCHASE TICKETS
$20 General Admission
$30 Reserved Seats
$40 Includes Gurwitch’s book + Reserved seat
$95 Includes Pre-event reception + book + Reserved Seats

Actress and humorist Annabelle Gurwitch is author of the upcoming I See You Made an Effort, a collection of hilarious wickedly funny essays about the hazards of turning 50, surviving menopause, and falling in lust at the Genius bar — the ultimate coming-of middle-age story and and sure to be a fun evening at Live Talks Los Angeles.

Is 50 the new 40 or is 50 still 50? The panic began to set in when Annabelle Gurwitch turned 49. Suddenly, new and pernicious health problems began to plague her, solicitations from the AARP began flooding her mailbox, and a marriage proposal on Twitter was abruptly rescinded when the tweeter caught a glimpse of Gurwitch’s age (“You’re older than my mother, eeeeww, gross, I need to shower now”). The nicest thing her hairdresser said to her recently was, “I see you made an effort.” A visit to her gynecologist ended not with one of his usual benign send-offs—stay healthy, stay happy, stay hydrated—but instead with the slightly ominous: “Stay…funny.”

Gurwitch bravely turns an unflinching eye towards the myriad issues women can expect to encounter in their later years. From navigating the extensive—and expensive—anti-aging offerings in at a department store beauty counter, to the assisted suicide of her best friend, and the financial reality of the “never-tirement” generation that leads her to petty theft, Gurwitch proves a wickedly funny writer in her prime (in so many ways).

Gurwitch is author of You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up, a self-hurt marital memoir co-written with her husband, Jeff Kahn, now a theatrical play in its third national tour; and Fired! Tales of the Caned, Canceled, Downsized & Dismissed. Her Fired! documentary premiered as a Showtime Comedy Special and played film festivals around the world. Gurwitch gained a loyal comedic following during her numerous years co-hosting the cult favorite, Dinner & a Movie; her acting credits include Dexter, Boston Legal, Seinfeld, Melvin Goes to Dinner, The Shaggy Dog and Not Necessarily The News on HBO. Most recently, she starred in the adaptation of Grace Paley’s A Coney Island Christmas by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Donald Margulies at The Geffen Playhouse. Live appearances include New York Comedy Festival, 92nd St Y, Upright Citizens Brigade and story salons in both New York and Los Angeles. She has served as a regular commentator on NPR and a humorist for TheNation. Her writing has appeared in More, Marie Claire, Men’s Health, Los Angeles Times and elsewhere. Gurwitch is a passionate environmentalist, a reluctant atheist, and lives with her husband and son in Los Angeles.

Jane Kaczmarek starred for 7 years on the hit television show MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE for which she received EMMY, GOLDEN GLOBE and S.A.G. Award nominations. Her 30 year career on television spans from THE PAPER CHASE and HILL STREET BLUES to LAW AND ORDER S.V.U.

On stage, Jane has performed in both comedy and and drama, including LOST IN YONKERS on Broadway ,THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES at the Taper , RAISED IN CAPTIVITY ( LA Drama Desk Award )  and the premiere of Pulitzer Prize winning DINNER WITH FRIENDS at SCR , GOOD PEOPLE at the Geffen Theatre (Ovation nomination) and KINDERTRANSPORT at the Tiffany Theatre for which she won the Ovation Award. She recently reprised her role in KINDERTRANSPORT for L.A. Theatre Works , which will be broadcast this year. She is the founder of the CLOTHES OFF OUR BACK Foundation which auctioned celebrity red carpet attire raising over 4 million dollars for children’s charities. Jane is a graduate of  the University of Wisconsin and the Yale School of Drama. She lives in Pasadena with her 3 children, german shepherd Lucy and guinea pig Eduardo.