This week, comedian Maria Bamford. She’s been called one of the most unusual – and bizarre – comedians performing today - addressing her own mental health struggles including obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. You can see her semi-autobiographical television series, Lady Dynamite, on Netflix. On October 14th, 2023, Bamford came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk to podcaster and author Anna Sale about her work and experiences – much of which is explored in her me...
Nov 26, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, we’ll hear from journalist Michael Lewis about a year in the life of crypto-currency king Sam Bankman-Fried. The FTX founder became the world’s youngest billionaire. Now, he’s been convicted of taking billions of dollars in customer deposits to fund political donations, luxury real estate and his own personal investments. It’s the subject of Lewis’ newest book, Going Infinite. On November 13, 2023, Lewis came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk to Indre Viskontas ...
Nov 19, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, a conversation about global aid efforts, and another one about the power of art to address humans’ relationships with animals. In the first part of the program, Dr. Raj Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation, talks about his work addressing global health crises and economic challenges both within the private sector and government. It’s the topic of his new book, Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens. On October 25th, 2023, Shah came to the KQED studios in San Francisc...
Nov 12, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest this week is writer Jhumpa Lahiri. Her debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, earned Lahiri a Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Many short story collections followed, as well as novels like The Namesake, which was the basis of a 2006 film directed by Mira Nair. Lahiri now translates and produces her own work in Italian too. On October 13, 2023, Jhumpa Lahiri came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk to Peter Stein about her latest collection, Roman Stories - w...
Nov 05, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Comedian Keegan-Michael Key is best known for his work with Jordan Peele, performing in numerous skits as half of the comedy duo “Key & Peele.” One of his most famous roles was President Obama’s anger translator, a part he played at the 2015 White House Correspondents’ Dinner with Obama himself. Now, alongside wife and collaborator Elle Key, he’s written a book – The History of Sketch Comedy.” On October 7th, 2023, the Keys came to The Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk about ...
Oct 29, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, George Saunders, a wildly inventive writer with an equally colorful background: Saunders worked as a geophysical prospector in Indonesia, a roofer in Chicago, and a doorman in Beverly Hills. Saunders’ short stories are often funny and frequently take place in a slightly futuristic, dystopian America. His novel “Lincoln in the Bardo” earned him the prestigious Man Booker Prize. On October 11th, 2023, George Saunders came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk with KQE...
Oct 22, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Sir Patrick Stewart, best known for the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek. After a working-class childhood in Yorkshire, Stewart trained as a classical actor at England’s Royal Shakespeare Company, where he appeared on stage for more than two decades. In 1986, he was invited to star in the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. No one could predict the success of the program, in fact, when Stewart traveled to California to take the role, he didn’t expect the show t...
Oct 15, 2023•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast It doesn’t feel so long ago that Zadie Smith exploded onto the literary scene with her stunning debut novel, “White Teeth.” Twenty-three years later, she has cemented her reputation as one of the most important voices of her generation, whether in the form of fiction, criticism, or cultural observation. Her many novels include “Swing Time” and “On Beauty” - and her new book - “The Fraud. ” It’s a work of historical fiction set in Victorian England. On September 22th, 2023, Smith came to The Sydn...
Oct 08, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Dr. Bettina Love… Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University and author of “We Want to Do More Than Survive.” Her writing, research, teaching, and educational advocacy focus on abolitionist teaching, antiracism, Black joy, and educational reparations. Love’s new book “Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal” is an unflinching reckoning with the impact of forty years of racist public school policy on generations of Black lives. On September...
Oct 01, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bobby Berk is the interior designer on the hit Netflix series Queer Eye . It’s a reality makeover show in which Berk and 4 other hosts, each an expert in a different category, transform peoples homes, wardrobes, and cultural tastes. The series has won two Emmys. On September 16th, 2023, Berk came to one of the San Francisco locations of independent bookstore Books Inc., to talk to writer Rebecca Handler*,* author of the novel “Edie Richter is Not Alone.” The two discussed Berk’s role on Queer Ey...
Sep 24, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest is writer, bookstore owner, and literary evangelist Ann Patchett. She’s the author of several novels including the best-selling Bel Canto, about a hostage situation at a lavish opera-themed birthday party. Patchett’s other books include The Patron Saint of Liars, and Commonwealth; and her newest novel, Tom Lake . It’s the story of three sisters in their 20s as they return home to Michigan during the pandemic, and the lives their parents lived before they were born. .On September 8th, 2...
Sep 17, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, our guest is poet Natalie Diaz in conversation with essayist and author Hilton Als. Natalie Diaz is an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian community and is the director of the Fort Mojave Language Recovery Program, where she works with the last remaining speakers of the Mojave language. Language and loss are explored throughout Diaz’s poetry, in collections including When My Brother Was an Aztec and Postcolonial Love Poem , which won her the Pulitzer Prize. Hilton Als is another ...
Sep 10, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the first half of this program, literary critic Carmela Ciuraru talks about her new book, Lives of the Wives, which shines a light on the lesser-known partners of historic literary giants. Weaving together themes of marriage, power, ego, and equity, this riveting deep dive explores relationship dynamics that are still relevant today. Then, artist and author Paul Madonna, who’s known for combining drawing and stories in a wide range of genres - from his enigmatic art series All Over Coffee whi...
Sep 03, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, we talk to the authors of two new books – one about our relationship to work, and another one about hospice and art. In the first half of this program, we talk to Simone Stolzoff. He’s the author of a new book, “The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming life from Work”. It takes a critical look at the way work has become so central to our identities - oftentimes at the expense of family, community and health. For artist Wendy MacNaughton, drawing is a vehicle for connection. Her subjects are of...
Aug 27, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, a conversation with two brothers, both distinguished members of the federal judiciary, Justice Stephen Breyer and his brother, Judge Charles Breyer. Stephen Breyer retired in summer 2022 after nearly 28 years as a member of the Supreme Court. Prior to that, he served nearly 14 years as a Court of Appeals Judge. He is especially appreciated for his pragmatism, issuing decisions most often informed by their real life consequences, and his firm belief that judges are loyal to the law, no...
Aug 20, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, a conversation between two unconventional artists, director, visual artist and author, John Waters and Aubrey Plaza, actor, comedian and producer. For nearly 50 years, John Waters has been making subversive films that playfully push all sorts of boundaries - movies like “Pink Flamingos”, “Hairspray”, and “Serial Mom”. Actor and comedian Aubrey Plaza cites Waters as a major influence of hers. She's best known for roles in “Parks and Recreation” and the second season of HBO’s “The White...
Aug 13, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ocean Vuong was not quite 30 years old when his debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, became a major literary sensation. It’s a coming of age story about a queer Vietnamese refugee, set against a backdrop of violence, poverty, and addiction. Much of it parallels Vuong’s own upbringing. Vuong is also the author of the poetry collections Night Sky with Exit Wounds and a new collection, Time is a Mother. On June 9th, 2023, Vuong came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San francisco to talk ...
Aug 06, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Epidemiologist Dr. Monica Gandhi will talk about the lessons learned from COVID-19 and why she thinks new vaccines and public health methods make us well-prepared for future pandemics. It’s the subject of her new book “Endemic: A Post-Pandemic Playbook”. She’s director at Ward 86, the HIV clinic at San Francisco General Hospital, and a professor at the University of California San Francisco. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Gandhi was a leading voice on every aspect of the disease, from its trans...
Jul 30, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2020, Brandon Taylor burst onto the literary scene with Real Life, a novel about a gay black doctoral student and his predominantly white colleagues. A finalist for the Booker Prize, Real Life offered a comedic take on themes like privilege and prejudice. Taylor followed that with another book about young creatives, the short story collection Filthy Animals. His highly anticipated new novel, The Late Americans, follows a circle of lovers and friends during a volatile year of self-discovery. O...
Jul 23, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Up-and-coming comedian Jamie Loftus has drawn comparisons to Andy Kaufman and Maria Bamford for work that’s equal parts absurd and intellectual – from a web series born from an exercise with her therapist, to a podcast about the comic strip character Cathy. Her new book Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs , invites you to “grab a dog, lay out your picnic blanket, and dig into the delicious and inevitable product of centuries of violence, poverty, and ambition, now rolling around at your loca...
Jul 16, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast By the time Javier Zamora was just five years old, both his parents had fled El Salvador to escape a United States-funded Civil War. Zamora lived with his grandparents until the age of nine. That’s when he migrated to the U.S. In his debut memoir, Solito, Zamora retells the experience of traveling alone as a young child. The nine-week odyssey took him across Guatemala, Mexico, and the Sonoran Desert – before he was able to reunite with his parents in California. The memoir has resonated deeply w...
Jul 09, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest is actor and author Tom Hanks. From his breakout role in “Splash,” to his award-winning performances in “Philadelphia” and “Forrest Gump,” Hanks has mesmerized audiences for nearly four decades. On May 16, 2023, Tom Hanks came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to be interviewed by activist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs. Always a storyteller, Hanks shared anecdotes about author Nora Ephron, studying acting at Chabot Community College in Hayward, Ca...
Jul 02, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nancy Pelosi has represented San Francisco in Congress for more than 35 years. She served as the 52nd Speaker of the House of Representatives, having made history in 2007 when she was elected the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House. Pelosi made history again in January 2019 when she regained her position second-in-line to the presidency – the first person to do so in more than six decades. As Speaker, Pelosi spearheaded passage of the historic Affordable Care Act in the House and led th...
Jun 25, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Award-winning television host and producer Andy Cohen is best known for Watch What Happens Live, Bravo’s late-night interactive talk show, and as executive producer of the Real Housewives franchise. His new memoir, The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up, details his experience as a glamorous but ultimately human father. Late-night parties are replaced by early mornings, Housewives drama is no match for what happens on the playground, and Cohen finds meaning in the most important job of his life. ...
Jun 18, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Stacey Abrams is a political leader, voting rights activist, and bestselling author. She served as Minority Leader in the Georgia House of Representatives, and she was the first Black woman to become gubernatorial nominee for a major party in United States history. Abrams has launched multiple nonprofit organizations devoted to democracy protection, effective public policy, and voting rights. She was instrumental in driving an enormous number of voter registrations in Georgia and those voters we...
Jun 11, 2023•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Abraham Verghese is a best-selling novelist, and a physician whose focus on healing and empathy stands out in an era when technology often overwhelms the human side of medicine. His novel Cutting for Stone is the story of twin brothers in Ethiopia coming of age on the brink of the country’s revolution. That book remained on the NYT Bestsellers List for over two years. His newest novel, The Covenant of Water, tells much of the story of twentieth-century India through a single family. Verghese’s n...
Jun 04, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Siddhartha Mukherjee is the author of The Gene: An Intimate History, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer , and The Laws of Medicine . Told in six parts and laced with his own experience as a researcher, doctor, and a prolific reader, Mukherjee’s new book The Song of the Cell , tells the story of how scientists discovered cells, began to understand them, and are now using that knowledge to create new humans. Mukherjee is an associate professor of medicine at Columbia University and...
May 28, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Actor Laura Dern has been captivating audiences since her breakout role in Blue Velvet in 1986. Since then, she’s appeared in dozens of films including Jurassic Park , Wild At Heart, Rambling Rose, The Last Jedi, Little Women, and Marriage Story, for which she won an Academy Award. Her television appearances include Enlightened, Twin Peaks: The Return and Big Little Lies . Her new book, Honey, Baby, Mine, co-written with her mother and fellow actor Diane Ladd, is a collection of intimate reflect...
May 21, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, a conversation with theoretical physicist and futurist Dr Michio Kaku. Kaku is a co-founder of string field theory and he's one of today's most recognizable scientists appearing regularly on news programs, documentary films and as host of two weekly radio programs, Exploration and Science Fantastic. In his latest book, Quantum Supremacy: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything , Kaku suggests how powerful computers might eventually solve some of humanity's biggest p...
May 14, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Richard Mosse is a photographer and filmmaker who’s documenting some of the world’s most significant environmental and humanitarian crises – and his work lies at the intersection between journalism and conceptual art. For his recent projects, Mosse used military-grade cameras to create detailed images from miles away. It’s a way to humanize his subjects and give new perspective on urgent issues. His new immersive video installation “Broken Specter” is on display at the Minnesota Street Project i...
May 07, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
