Walter Isaacson with Michael Lewis

Monday, October 23, 2017
8pm (Reception: 6:30-7:30pm)
 
Walter Isaacson
in conversation with Michael Lewis
 
discussing his upcoming biography,
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 ProjectFlash Boys, The Big Short, The Blind Side, Liar’s PokerMoneyball,  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.

 

 

Michael Lewis with Mindy Kaling

Wednesday, January 25, 2017
8pm 
 
Michael Lewis
in conversation with Mindy Kaling
 
discussing his upcoming book,
The Undoing Project:
A Friendship That Changed Our Minds


Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School

Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90404

PURCHASE TICKETS — SOLD OUT
Will be posted on our Facebook page a few days later.

$45 General Admission seat + a copy of Undoing Project
$50 Reserved Section Seat + a copy of Undoing Project
$95 Reception (6:30-7:30pm) + Reserved Section Seat 
        + copy of Undoing Project

Michael Lewis’ bestsellers include Flash Boys, The Big Short, The Blind Side, Liar’s Poker and Moneyball.  Michael Lewis previously appeared with Malcolm Gladwell at Live Talks Los Angeles discussing his book, Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt. Watch the video.

“I read Lewis for the same reasons I watch Tiger Woods. I’ll never play like that. But it’s good to be reminded every now and again what genius looks like.” — Malcolm Gladwell

In The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds, Lewis brings his narrative gift to the fascinating collaboration between Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, whose Nobel Prize-winning theory of the mind altered our perception of reality. Kahneman and Tversky showed the ways in which the human mind errs, systematically, when forced to make judgments about uncertain situations. By undoing our assumptions about the decision-making process, Kahneman and Tversky’s breathtaking work created the field of behavioral economics, advanced evidence-based medicine, led to a new approach to government regulation, and made possible much of Lewis’s own writing, on topics from business to baseball.

The characters at the center of this story have the dramatic complexity of great literary figures, heroes both in the university and on the battlefield. Their breakthrough ideas were deeply linked to their extraordinary life experiences, and their findings might well have changed, for good, mankind’s view of its own mind.

Mindy Kaling is an actor, writer, producer, and director. She currently stars in the Hulu original comedy series The Mindy Project, which she also writes and executive produces. The show centers on Dr. Mindy Lahiri, a successful OB/GYN whose love of romantic comedies is wreaking havoc on her personal life. 

Before The Mindy Project, Mindy was best known for her work on the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning NBC show The Office. In addition to directing, producing, and portraying celebrity-obsessed Kelly Kapoor, Mindy wrote 18 episodes of the series, including the Emmy nominated episode “Niagra.” 

She is currently in production on Ocean’s 8 alongside Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway. She will next begin production on A Wrinkle in Time for Disney.

Aside from her work in film and television, Mindy is the author of the comedic memoir Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns), and her second memoir Why Not Me? was released in September 2015 —  both New York Times’ best-sellers.  She appeared at Live Talks Los Angeles in September 2015.