Christopher Buckley is author of fifteen books, which have translated into sixteen languages. They include: Steaming To Bamboola, The White House Mess, Wet Work, God Is My Broker, Little Green Men, No Way To Treat a First Lady, Florence of Arabia, Boomsday, Supreme Courtship, Losing Mum And Pup: A Memoir and Thank You For Smoking, which was made into a movie in 2005.

Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Frank Deford is senior contributing writer at Sports Illustrated. A weekly commentator for NPR’s “Morning Edition,” — where he recently he read his fifteenth-hundred commentary — he is also a regular correspondent on the HBO show “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.

Oscar Hijuelos is the international bestselling author of eight novels, including Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, for which he became the first Latino to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. He visits Live Talks to talk about his memoir, Thoughts Without Cigarettes — about the people and places that inspired his novels.

Join us for an evening with Garry Marshall — a creative force in Hollywood for more than 50 years. He has excelled as a writer, producer, director, and actor. Among his credits, in TV & Film – Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, and Laverne & Shirley; Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, Beaches, The Other Sister, and The Princess Diaries.

Join us for a lively discussion about the impact of the modern era of connectedness on our ability to think, create, and participate in the world. An event inspired by Pico Iyer’s recent piece in the New York Times extolling the virtues of peace and quiet. … Iyer has yet to own a cell phone!

Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Gregg Allman comes to Live Talks to share his story — the triumphs and tragedies. A gifted natural interpreter of the blues, his soulful and distinctive voice is one of the defining sounds in the history of American music. At this year’s 54th Annual Grammy Awards, the Allman Brothers Band was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Renowned political philosopher and Harvard professor, Michael Sandel, re-thinks the role that markets and money should play in our society. Quoting Sandel, “Markets are useful instruments for organizing productive activity. But unless we want to let the market rewrite the norms that govern social institutions, we need a public debate about the moral limits of markets.”

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist David Horsey is a political commentator for the Los Angeles Times. His Top of the Ticket blog is the mostly highly viewed feature on LATIMES.com. David’s work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek and MSNBC.com.

Amy Poehler currently stars on the critically acclaimed NBC comedy series, “Parks and Recreation… On Saturday Night Live, the brilliantly inventive sketch comedian brought us memorable impressions of Hillary Clinton, Kelly Ripa, Avril Lavigne, Sharon Osbourne, Paula Abdul, Sharon Stone and Michael Jackson…Join us for a hilarious evening as she is interviewed by Jane Lynch (Glee).

Renowned music photographer Henry Diltz has taken photos of rock ‘n’ roll’s most famous stars since the 1960s. His works have graced more than 300 album covers and appeared on the pages of magazines, books and newspapers around the globe.
“I’m the drummer, you’re the photographer, it’s as simple as that.” — Ringo Starr