This week…. a encore of a 2018 conversation with Michael Pollan. When it was originally recorded in 2018, the idea of using psychedelics for therapeutic intervention was new to many people. Today, just a few years later, treating mental health disorders like depression and PTSD with drugs like psilocybin, LSD or MDMA, better known as a component in Ecstasy, is much more familiar. Some might say it’s rapidly gaining public acceptance. Michael Pollan has written numerous books and articles about t...
Sep 05, 2021•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rita Dove was the youngest person ever to be named United States Poet Laureate. She was also the first African American to hold the title. Her poems imbue historical events with personal detail and experience. Dove is also a novelist and acclaimed lyricist. On August 15, 2021, she talked with Steven Winn about her most recent collection. “Playlist for the Apocalypse”.
Aug 29, 2021•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Joy Harjo is a performer and writer of the Muskogee Creek Nation. She’s currently serving her second term as United States Poet Laureate. Much of Harjo’s poetry incorporates indigenous myths. She also addresses social justice and feminism. Her newest book is a memoir, “Poet Warrior”. On August 16, 2021, Joy Harjo talked with Steven Winn about her work.
Aug 29, 2021•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alison Bechdel‘s cult following for her early comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For grew wildly in response to her family memoirs, the best-selling graphic memoir Fun Home , adapted into a Tony Award-winning musical, and Are You My Mother? She has become a cultural household name for the concept of the Bechdel Test, a metric used when considering the representation of women in film. Bechdel has been named a MacArthur Fellow and Cartoonist Laureate of Vermont, among many other honors. On May 7, 2021...
Aug 26, 2021•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast When journalist Courtney Martin learned that white families in her gentrifying neighborhood in Oakland largely avoided the majority-Black, poorly-rated public school down the street, she began asking why. In Learning in Public: Lessons For a Racially Divided America From My Daughter’s School, Martin examines her own fears, assumptions, and conversations with other parents as they navigate school choice. The book is part memoir, part investigation into the persistence of school segregation in the...
Aug 22, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Brian Greene is one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists, widely recognized for his groundbreaking discoveries in the field of superstring theory. His ability to clearly communicate cutting-edge science - even bringing humor to abstruse mathematical concepts -- has made Greene a sort of rock star physicist. On February 25, 2020, Brian Greene came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk to Gina Pell about his newest book “Until The End of Time: Mind, Matter and Our Searc...
Aug 01, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, we’ll hear how distance has played a key role in psychotherapy – even before the pandemic. Starting with Freud’s treatments by mail, to crisis hotlines, and now mobile phones and Zoom sessions, therapy has long existed outside the doctor’s office. Hannah Zeavin calls it teletherapy, and she explores its history in a new book “The Distance Cure”. On July 17, 2021, Zeavin talked to Adam Savage.
Jul 25, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Michelle Zauner is a musician who plays indie pop under the name “Japanese Breakfast”. Zauner grew up in the Pacific Northwest, raised by her mother, a Korean immigrant. As an adult, she moved back to become a caregiver at the end of her mother’s life. Her memoir “Crying in H-Mart” grapples with grief and trauma - but also provides delicious detail about her family’s Korean cooking. On May 6, 2021, Zauner spoke with comedian Bowen Yang of Saturday Night Live.
Jul 18, 2021•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Lucy Corin is the author of the novel “Everyday Psycho Killers: A History for Girls”, and two short story collections, the most recent being “100 Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses”. On June 23, 2021, Corin talked with Daniel Handler just before the publication of her second novel, “The Swank Hotel”. The book explores mental illness, familial grief, and love.
Jul 11, 2021•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Poet Victoria Chang’s new collection, “Obit”, is about grief and grieving. Chang wrote the book in the wake of her mother’s death. The poems are written as obituaries, and their creation gave Chang a way to process her loss and contemplate her own mortality. Victoria Chang spoke with Daniel Handler on January 19, 2021.
Jul 11, 2021•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Jen Gunter is an ob-gyn and a pain medicine physician who writes on topics of sex, science, and social media. A fierce advocate for women’s health, Gunter is devoted to correcting the misinformation perpetuated by the internet around women’s well-being and reproductive health. She is the author of The Preemie Primer and The Vagina Bible . Her new book, The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism, counters stubborn myths about menopause with hard facts, real science, fasc...
Jul 04, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Twenty years ago, Jhumpa Lahiri received the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for Interpreter of Maladies, her debut story collection that explores issues of love and identity among immigrants and cultural transplants. She went on to write more short stories, poems, essays, and novels, such as The Namesake. Since moving to Italy in 2011, Lahiri has worked as a translator of Italian literature, and produced her own work in Italian. For her latest book, Whereabouts, she first wrote the story in Italian befo...
Jun 20, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, people have faced unprecedented emotional challenges. Our guests this week are both experts in the relationship between physical and emotional well-being. Dr. Elissa Epel’s research includes the ways that chronic stress affects the process of aging. She’s a professor of psychology at UC San Francisco. Dr. Dacher Keltner studies the biological and evolutionary origins of feelings like compassion, awe, and love. He’s the director of the Greater Good Science ...
Jun 13, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Jessica B. Harris is the preeminent authority on the culinary culture of the African Diaspora. Harris has spent over three decades studying African food and its migration. To understand the rich and complex flavors of African American cuisine requires looking at the culinary cultures of the African continent and the slave trade that brought Africans to America. Harris is the author of twelve critically acclaimed cookbooks documenting the foods and foodways of the African Diaspora including I...
Jun 06, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2018, Stacey Abrams lost her bid to be governor of Georgia. It was a huge disappointment – she was the first Black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee of a major party in the US. It was also unexpected – Abrams won more votes than any Democrat in Georgia’s history. The surprise outcome had much to do with the state’s mismanagement of the election. After she lost, Abrams created the voting rights organization Fair Fight. Since 2018, she’s been instrumental in driving an enormous number o...
May 30, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer who’s brought national attention to the failures of America’s criminal justice system. He’s the founding director of the Equal Justice Institute in Montgomery, Alabama. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and of the mentally ill, and exonerating innocent Death Row inmates. We’ll hear Stevenson talk to Chesa Boudin, San Francisco’s District Attorney, and Rachel Marshall. This conversation was recorded on Decem...
May 23, 2021•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast As an activist fighting for racial and social equality, Tamika Mallory has inspired countless others to get involved with these issues – and never more so than when the speech she made during the protests following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis went viral. Mallory grew up in an activist family; her parents were founding members of the civil rights organization National Action Network. She would go on to become its youngest ever executive director. On May 14, 2021, Tamika Mallory talk...
May 23, 2021•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, we’ll listen to a conversation with David Mitchell and Pico Iyer, recorded on May 8, 2021. David Mitchell’s many novels include Cloud Atlas, The Bone Clocks , and Ghostwritten . . His most recent novel, Utopia Avenue, follows the strangest British band you’ve never heard of. Mitchell’s stories often weave together the supernatural and the philosophical. He’s also one of the most structurally inventive writers of our time, featuring nonlinear storylines and multiple genres within a sin...
May 16, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rachel Kushner is the author of several novels including The Mars Room and The Flamethrowers. Her work has been compared to Joan Didion’s, and that of Don DeLillo, a literary mentor to Kushner. Kushner’s newest book, The Hard Crowd, is a collection of essays from the past 20 years that showcase her intellect and diverse interests, from muscle cars to postmodern art and politics. She has received grants and prizes from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and he...
May 09, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, our guests are Astra Taylor and Robert Reich. Taylor is an activist, author, and documentary filmmaker whose films include What is Democracy? (2018) and An Examined Life (2008). Last year, at the onset of the pandemic, Taylor joined economist Robert Reich to discuss his just-published book, The System. It was the very beginning of COVID-19’s complete upheaval of normal life, and Reich made a plea for government to understand the moment as a health crisis, not an economic one. On April...
May 02, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, we present a conversation with choreographer Alonzo King. He’s the artistic director of LINES Ballet, a contemporary dance company in San Francisco. He founded it in 1982, and has revolutionized the way we view dance. King’s choreography includes a blend of powerful and tender emotion, and unbelievable feats of athleticism. LINES Ballet looks and moves unlike any other ballet company, and King’s art has always spoken to the moment, politically and spiritually. On April 14, 2021, Alonz...
Apr 25, 2021•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Playwright Lauren Gunderson’s work is often based on the lives of historical figures – scientists like Marie Curie and Isaac Newton, and political figures such as the first woman elected to Congress. Gunderson didn’t have to travel far to research her newest play, The Catastrophist – the one-man play centers on her husband, virologist Nathan Wolf. One of Wolf’s areas of expertise – biological threats that can lead to pandemics. On April 8, 2021, Adam Savage talked to Gunderson and Wolf about the...
Apr 18, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, we’ll hear a conversation between two writers with unique perspectives on America. Ocean Vuong is a poet and the author of the novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. The story closely mirrors Vuong’s own life: born in Viet Nam, he was two years old when his family left a refugee camp in the Philippines to come to the US. Tommy Orange published his debut novel, There There, in 2018; it’s about the complex and painful history of a multi-generational Native American family in Oakland. On...
Apr 11, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, our guests bring us unique perspectives on life during a pandemic. Larry Brilliant is a renowned epidemiologist whose work with the World Health Organization helped eradicate smallpox, giving him keen insights into how governments can help tackle global disease. In a new book, Sometimes Brilliant, he reflects on his remarkable life and his extraordinary experiences as a doctor, innovator, philanthropist, and cultural revolutionary. Jack Kornfield was one of the first people to introdu...
Apr 04, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jenny Offill is the author of the novels Last Things , Dept. of Speculation, and, most recently, Weather . One of the pleasures of reading Offill’s books is hearing the emotional struggles and ambivalent attitudes of very honest narrators. In Weather, the concerns of daily life and parenting combine with the looming apocalypse of climate change. Both hilarious and heartbreaking, the novel asks readers to think about the mundane ways we live and grapple with our rapidly deteriorating environment....
Mar 28, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast There are over 2 million people incarcerated in the United States – but tens of millions more who are living with criminal records. This week, we’ll hear about the constraints and challenges faced by formerly incarcerated people. Reuben Jonathan Miller is a sociologist, criminologist and a social worker who teaches at the University of Chicago in the School of Social Service Administration where he studies and writes about race, democracy, and the social life of the city. His book, Halfway Home:...
Mar 21, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this City Arts & Lectures Podcast exclusive, Daniel Handler and Rebecca Handler talk about family and work in a uniquely familiar conversation that only siblings could have. Rebecca Handler is a writer who lives and works in San Francisco. Her debut novel Edie Richter Is Not Alone features a protagonist who moves with her family to Perth, Australia following the death of her father. There, she finds herself isolated and forced to confront a painful secret from her past. Daniel Handler is ...
Mar 19, 2021•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Poet, memorist, and essayist Patricia Lockwood is perhaps best known for her memoir Priestdaddy, an extraordinarily funny account of growing up the daughter of the most singular Catholic priest in America. Lockwood has just published her first novel, No One is Talking About This , reckons with the feeling of being eternally online, unable to shut off the feed that keeps on scrolling, no matter what we do to stop it. She’s a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books , and has a vast foll...
Mar 14, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, our guest is novelist Susan Choi. She’s the author of five books, most recently “Trust Exercise”. It centers on a group of teenagers at a competitive art school in 1980s suburbia. What starts out as something straightforward becomes more complex – and with an experimental narrative structure that concludes with a surprise twist. The book won the 2019 National Book Award for fiction. Choi teaches fiction writing at Yale and lives in Brooklyn. On February 16, 2021, Susan Choi spoke with...
Mar 07, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest is Lily King, the award-winning author of five novels. Her 2014 novel “Euphoria” was inspired by the life of anthropologist Margaret Mead. Last year, King published “Writers and Lovers”, the story of an aspiring author finding her way in the world. Written with her trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, “Writers & Lovers” explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another. On February 18, 2021, Lily King talked with Is...
Feb 28, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
