Another event in out Newer Voices Series featuring C. Morgan Babst and her debut novel, The Floating World, about family, home, and grief.  She takes readers into the heart of Hurricane Katrina and the life of a great city. A native of New Orleans, she studied writing at NOCCA, Yale, and NYU. Walter Isaacson says of her 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.” 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. 

From the creator of Dilbert, an unflinching look at the strategies Donald Trump used to persuade voters to elect the most unconventional candidate in the history of the presidency, and how anyone can learn his methods for succeeding against long odds. Scott Adams is the creator of Dilbert, one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He has been a full-time cartoonist since 1995, after 16 years working in the technology realm at a major bank and later a phone company. His many bestsellers include The Dilbert Principle, Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbook, and How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big. He is co-founder of WhenHub.

Kate Hudson is a Golden Globe Award winner and Academy Award–nominated actress, producer, entrepreneur and best-selling author of Pretty Happy. She is best known for her roles in Almost Famous, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Bride Wars, which she also produced.  Kate’s love of design and fashion has seen her become an international style icon and muse for some of the world’s top designers. In Pretty Fun, Kate Hudson shares her philosophy behind gatherings, how to be in the moment, make them uniquely yours, embracing occasions to just be together. 

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 Original Series GLOW. 

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.

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.  

Walter Isaacson has been CEO of the Aspen Institute, chairman of CNN, and editor of Time magazine and is a professor of history at Tulane. 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, he weaves a narrative that connects the art produced by history’s most creative genius to his science. Michael Lewis returns to our stage to interview him.

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.  Jodi Picoult says, “Reading an Alice Hoffman book is like falling into a deep dream where senses are heightened and love reigns supreme. The Rules of Magic is no exception—as I tumbled into the story of three siblings desperate for and cursed by love, I never wanted to awaken.”

Television legend Ed Asner is well-known for his role on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and subsequent spin-off, Lou Grant. He has also made a name for himself as a trade unionist and a political activist. Ed. Weinberger has written for Bob Hope, Richard Pryor, and Johnny Carson. He wrote for and produced The Mary Tyler Moore Show, co-created Taxi, Dear John, and The Cosby Show. Their book is The Grouchy Historian: An Old-Time Lefty Defends Our Constitution Against Right-Wing Hypocrites and Nutjobs.