Jewish Community Center of San Francisco - Arts & Ideas Lectures

Andre Aciman

Thu, 17 Jun 2010

As a teenager, the Alexandria-born author Andre Aciman was forced to leave Egypt, where his family had lived for centuries. For Aciman, loss and the meaning of home have become central themes in his work. His latest novel, Eight White Nights, is a poignant love story of unforgettable passion.

John Adams

Mon, 27 Apr 2009

Contemporary classical composer John Adams, best known for groundbreaking works like Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer, which blend opera, classical, and experimental and pop music to illuminate recent political events; joins California historian Kenneth Starr for a conversation about music.

Edward Albee

Mon, 12 Jan 2009

Legendary, three-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Edward Albee talks about his remarkable career with Berkeley Repertory Theatre director Tony Taccone.

Mitch Albom

Fri, 7 Dec 2007 9:00:00 PDT

Experience an inspiring lecture by this bestselling author of For One More Day, an upcoming primetime special which poses the question: "What would you do if you could spend one more day with a lost loved one?"

Isabel Allende

Mon, 12 December, 2008 9:00:00 PDT

Allende, a Chilean-American novelist whose work contains aspects of the magic realist tradition, is one of the first successful women novelists in Latin America,focusing on the experiences of women, myth and realism. She has also lectured, done extensive book tours and taught literature at several US colleges.

Robert Alter

Mon, 1 August 2008 9:00:00 PDT

Robert Alter aims to reproduce the rhythmic energy of the Hebrew texts in an English that adheres as closely as possible to the meaning and style of the original. He was drawn to biblical translation almost despite himself, propelled by a sense that recent translations were badly flawed.

Jonathan Ames and David Shields

Mon, 16 Nov 2009

The New York gonzo scribe and amateur boxer, Jonathan Ames built a cult following with his fierce, hilarious style. David Shields melds personal history with frank biological data about every stage of life, creating an autobiography of the human body.

Martin Amis

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 9:00:00 PDT

The witty and controversial British writer talks about his new novel House of Meetings, the nature of authoritarianism and life with his father, Kingsley Amis.

Max Apple

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 9:00:00 PDT

Short-story writer and novelist Max Apple is known for the comic intelligence of his work. In his first collection to appear in 20 years, Apple presents stories that are funny, off-the-wall inventive and down-to-earth intelligent.

Karen Armstrong

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 9:00:00 PDT

Karen Armstrong, one of the world's leading commentators on religious affairs, has written more than 20 books on Islam, Judaism, Christianity and on her own years in a convent and spiritual awakening. She believes religion is a force for harmony, and her latest book, The Case for God, explores the lengths humans will go to in search of a sacred experience called God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah or Dao.

Reza Aslan

Thu, 3 Jun 2010 9:00:00 PDT

According to author and commentator Reza Aslan, by adopting the same polarizing rhetoric as the jihadists, in the so-called War on Terror, the U.S. is fighting a war that cannot be won. Aslan argues that we must strip this ideological conflict of its religious connotations and address the grievances that fuel the Jihadist movement.

Bad Girls

Mon, 9 March 2009

From Mary Magdalene to Madonna, Gypsy Rose Lee to Angelina Jolie, bad girls have always been a source of fascination. But are these women born or made? Is their bad behavior a fall from grace or a triumph? We're bringing together a group of self-proclaimed bad girls including Elizabeth Rosner, Kate Moses, Michelle Richmond, and Kim Addonizio - all of whom are featured in Ellen Sussman's riveting anthology, Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave, to share their funny, poignant stories. Bring out your own inner bad girl and join us!

Annie Barrows

Mon, 8 Mar 2010

Author Annie Barrows talks about The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, a book club favorite and publishing phenomenon.

Jennifer Baumgardner

Mon, 31 March 2008 9:00:00 PDT

Thirty-something feminist activist Jennifer Baumgardner argues that the women's movement didn't necessarily provide her generation with a road map to the equal, fulfilling relationships that they expected. It is the insurgent voices of bisexual women, she says, that are furthering the aims of the feminist dream for a better world.

Ishmael Beah

Thu, 02 July 2008 9:00:00 PDT

There may be as many as 300,000 child soldiers, high on drugs and wielding AK-47s, in more than 50 conflicts around the world. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. This former child soldier, who was swept up in Sierra Leone's civil war, gives us one of the only first-person accounts of a child abducted into the horrors of warfare.

Charles Bernstein and Norman Fischer

Thu, 27 May 2010 9:00:00 PDT

Poets Charles Bernstein and Norman Fischer discuss how being Jewish reflects on their poetry and how the avant-garde tradition informs their identity.

Michael Bishop

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 9:00:00 PDT

Michael Bishop, the Nobel Prize-winning Chancellor of UC San Francisco, and KQED host Michael Krasny discuss The Future of Cancer at JCCSF's Kanbar Hall. Bishop will focus on the cutting edge of cancer research and treatment, including the short- and long-term strategies that are emerging to combat the genetic malfunction at the root of cancer.

Cherie Blair

Mon, 22 Dec 2008

Blair is known professionally as Cherie Booth QC, is an English barrister and is married to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. She specialises in employment, discrimination and public law and in this capacity has occasionally represented claimants taking cases against the UK government.

Eric Bogosian

Wed, 15 Jun 2009 9:00:00 PDT

Eric Bogosian, award-winning playwright (Talk Radio), actor (Law and Order: Criminal Intent), and novelist (Wasted Beauty), (Mall) speaks about his life, career, and his latest novel which recreates the landscape and atmosphere of downtown New York.

Richard Bolles

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 9:00:00 PDT

Did you know there are more than five job hunters for every opening. Thirteen million Americans are looking for work. Do you need help tipping the odds in your favor? Richard Bolles, author ofWhat Color is Your Parachute? can help.

Charles Bronfman with Jeffrey Solomon

Mon, 4 Jan 2010 9:00:00 PDT

Moderated by Amy Rabbino, Director of Philanthropic Services, Jewish Community Endowment Fund; renowned philanthropist and founder of Birthright Israel Charles Bronfman offers fresh insights into creating a business plan that works, regardless of income level, and why one needs to understand philanthropy as a business undertaking as well as a deeply personal, reflective process. In a post-Madoff world, Bronfman's words of wisdom are all the more instructive. Jeffrey Solomon is president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, a global family of charitable foundations that actively connects young Jews with their communities, culture and each other.

Geraldine Brooks

Mon, 09 Feb 2009

Geraldine Brooks is an Australian author and journalist and attended Bethlehem College Ashfield and the University of Sydney. She worked as a reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald for three years as a feature writer with a special interest in environmental issues. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2006 for her novel March. Her first novel, Year of Wonders, is an international bestseller, and People of the Book is a New York Times bestseller.

Willie Brown

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 9:00:00 PDT

The man Bill Clinton called "the real Slick Willie" shares his political calculation in this election year. Listen as the former San Francisco mayor and speaker of the California Assembly continues to tell it like it is.

A.S. Byatt

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 9:00:00 PDT

A.S. Byatt may be the patron saint of bookworms. In her novels, including the Booker Prize-winning Possession: A Romance, Still Life, A Whistling Woman and The Children's Book, reading and writing often prove to be matters of life and death.

Ethan Canin

Mon, 12 Jan 2009

Canin is an American educator, author, and physician. He pursued both medicine and writing for years, leaving medicine in 1998 to join the faculty of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he still teaches and is a co-founder of the San Francisco Writers' Grotto.

Fritjof Capra

Mon, 08 Dec 2008

Capra, physicist and systems theorist, is a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, which promotes ecology and systems thinking in primary and secondary education. He is also on the faculty of Schumacher College, an international center for ecological studies in England, and gives management seminars for top executives.

Joyce Carol Oates

Wed, 2 July 2008 9:00:00 PDT

Joyce Carol Oates' prodigious output and talent for creating characters who draw us in never ceases to amaze. The newest novel by this National Book Award and PEN/Malamud Award winner is The Gravedigger's Daughter, a sprawling, masterful epic about a young woman's struggle for identity and survival in post-World War II America.

Chris Cleave

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 9:00:00 PDT

Chris Cleave's incandescent novel, Little Bee, tells the compelling story of a young Nigerian girl, a refugee from the internecine tribal oil wars of her country, and an Englishwoman whose destiny is inextricably linked to this young African girl's. Cleave, whose acclaimed first novel, Incendiary, was an international bestseller, deftly combines humor with pathos in this timely tale of friendship, national identity, responsibility, grief, and redemption.

Andrei Codrescu

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 9:00:00 PDT

Impractical Lessons for Practical Living Romanian-born poet, novelist and essayist Andrei Codrescu delights NPR audiences with his audacious cultural commentary. He writes that his adopted city of New Orleans, especially post-Katrina, is "a city that steadfastly refuses to conform." His new book, The Posthuman Dada Guide, is "an impractical handbook for practical living in our posthuman world."

Jared Cohen

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 9:00:00 PDT

While still a student, Jared Cohen defied government warnings and made a series of perilous journeys to Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. Cohen's eye-opening, first-hand account of a thriving and progressive Muslim youth culture includes perspectives from Hezbollah members, Palestinian refugees and Iraqi insurgents.

E. L. Doctorow

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 9:00:00 PDT

E.L. Doctorow is among the most talented, ambitious and admired novelists in contemporary American literature. His novels include The March, City of God and Ragtime. Hear him discuss the creative process and his upbringing in the Bronx as the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants.

Rachel Elior

Mon, 2 Feb 2009

Renowned scholar of Jewish philosophy and mystical thought, Rachel Elior illuminates the origins and history of Jewish mysticism, the context of its evolution and how kabbalah went from an esoteric spiritual practice to kabbalah.com.

Ezekiel Emanuel

Mon, 26 Jan 2009

Ezekiel Emanuel is a leading opponent of state-assisted suicide, and a proponent of a Guaranteed Healthcare Access Plan (GHAP). He graduated from Amherst College in 1979, received his MSc from Oxford University in Biochemistry, his MD from Harvard Medical School and a PhD in Political Philosophy from Harvard University. Currently Emanuel is Director of the Clinical Bioethics Department at the U.S. National Institutes of Health and has been tapped to as a White House Health Care policy adviser.

Nathan Englander

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 9:00:00 PDT

The author of For the Relief of Unbearable Urges returns with The Ministry of Special Cases, about the Jewish community in Buenos Aires on the eve of Argentina's 1976 military coup.

Jonathan Safran Foer

Mon, 23 Nov 2009

Foer is one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation. His first novels, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, sold over 700,000 copies. His first work of nonfiction, Eating Animals, is a quest to understand meat, how it's produced and the environmental effects of eating animals. Foer explores all sides of the issue, including breaking into a chicken farm, and asserts few readers will look at their dinner the same way again.

Kinky Friedman

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 9:00:00 PDT

Hailed as the Frank Zappa of country music, Kinky Friedman's larger-than-life persona is impossible to categorize. Friedman has been a best-selling crime fiction author, an entrepreneur and an independent 2006 gubernatorial candidate in Texas - where he polled good numbers with the campaign slogan, Kinky Friedman for Governor: How Hard Can It Be? Get ready to laugh as Friedman plays his uniquely Kinky songs and dishes about politics.

Adam Garfinkle and David Makovsky

Mon, 11 Jan 2010

Authors Adam Garfinkle and David Makovsky talk to Abby Porth about the world's positive and negative impressions of Jews and counter false assumptions about Middle East politics.

Ira Glass and David Rakoff

Mon, 12 December, 2008 9:00:00 PDT

In this special evening with two of National Public Radio's most popular personalities, host and producer of This American Life, Ira Glass teams up with David Rakoff, a favorite contributor to the program, to replay Rakoff's popular "Christmas Freud".

Julia Glass

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 9:00:00 PDT

Julia Glass, author of Three Junes, The Whole World Over and I See You Everywhere, has said that engaging with insightful readers is how she learns about herself and her writing. She is recorded here in conversation with Michelle Richmond, the author of The New York Times bestseller The Year of Fog and the award-winning story collection The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress.

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

Mon, 08 Feb 2010

Award-winning novelist and MacArthur "genius" Rebecca Goldstein (The Mind-Body Problem, Mazel, Betraying Spinoza) is a writer whose work wrestles with affairs of the mind, heart, and soul. A philosopher by training, Goldstein helps us understand the almost erotic power that ideas can impart. Her latest book, Thirty-Six Arguments for the Existence of God, dives into the great debate between faith and reason, and gives us "a hilarious novel about people's existential agonies and the intellectual mysteries that obsess them."

Lori Gottlieb

Thu, 02 Dec 2010

Lori Gottlieb, author of Marry Him, defends her controversial perspective on dating, marriage and achieving romantic happiness. The book grew out of her 2008 article in The Atlantic, in which she said the unthinkable: women should stop searching for Prince Charming and settle for Mr. Good Enough.

Aubrey de Grey

Mon, 20 Oct 2008

de Grey is a British biomedical gerontologist and author of the general-audience book Ending Aging, a detailed description of how regenerative medicine may be able to defeat aging entirely within a few decades. At present, he is mainly acting as chairman and chief science officer of the Methuselah Foundation and editor-in-chief of the academic journal Rejuvenation Research.

Temple Grandin

Mon, 23 Feb 2009

Temple Grandin is a Doctor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, bestselling author, and consultant to the livestock industry in animal behavior. A high-functioning autistic herself, Grandin is also widely noted for her work in autism advocacy.

Andrew Sean Greer

Wed, 02 Jul, 2008

Author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli, a novel about love and war set in San Francisco's Sunset district in the 1950, in addition to garnering comparisons to Proust and Nabokov, has also received the New York Public Library Young Lions Award for writers under 35.

David Grossman (Feb 2009)

Mon, 16 Feb 2009

In conversation with Robert Alter, David Grossman, one of Israel's most respected authors and best-loved voices for peace, talks about the life and conscience of a nation that, he says, has lost faith in its leaders and its ideals.

David Grossman (Nov 2010)

Mon, 22 Nov 2009

One of Israel's most acclaimed authors, David Grossman, returns to the JCCSF with the novel that is considered his masterpiece. To the End of the Land is a rich imagining of a family in love and a wrenching illustration of the cost of war.

Rabbis David Weiss Halivni and Michael Berenbaum

Wed, 21 Apr 2010

Rabbi David Weiss-Halivni, a survivor of Auschwitz and one of the greatest Talmudic scholars of the past century, joins Rabbi Michael Berenbaum, a leading scholar of the Holocaust, for a conversation about Jewish theology after Auschwitz, the memorialization of the Shoah, and why remembering is an act of defiance.

Mickey Hart

Fri, 4 Jan 2008 9:00:00 PDT

The Grateful Dead drummer and music preservationist talks about his commitment to save and celebrate the world's musical heritage.

Brad Hirschfield

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 9:00:00 PDT

As a young man, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield moved to the West Bank settlement of Hebron where he carried a gun and, on one occasion, used it. Today, the orthodox rabbi and co-president of The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, is deeply committed to nurturing interfaith communities, teaching inclusiveness, and delivering a message of acceptance. He is also considered by Newsweek magazine to be one of the Top 50 Rabbis in America.

Moshe Idel

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 9:00:00 PDT

A prominent kabbalah scholar, Moshe Idel discusses the role of magic in Jewish mysticism, the use of amulets and incantations, and the persistence of the Jewish magical tradition in contemporary Israeli society. In conversation with Nathaniel Deutsch of UC Santa Cruz.

Martin S. Indyk

Mon, 11 May 2009

Middle East expert and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk shares an insider's account of U.S. diplomacy.

Eric Kandel

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 9:00:00 PDT

The winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Medicine discusses his groundbreaking discoveries in the science of memory.

Moises Kaufman in conversation with Tony Taccone

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 9:00:00 PDT

Moises Kaufman is founder of "Tectonic Theater Project" and is also creator of The Laramie Project which is about the reaction to the 1998 murder of University of Wyoming gay student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. Hear Tony Taccone, artistic director of Berkeley Repertory Theater, in conversation with this groundbreaking playwright and director.

Jonathon Keats

Thu, 16 Mar 2009

Conceptual artist and novelist, Jonathon Keats, reads from his collection of fables, "The Book of the Unknown".

Etgar Keret

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 9:00:00 PDT

Israel's most acclaimed young writer reads from The Nimrod Flipout, his latest collection to be translated into English.

David Kessler

Mon, 1 Feb 2010 9:00:00 PDT

Dr. Kessler, the controversial former head of the FDA who took on the big tobacco companies, now strikes out at the food industry in The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Isatiable American Appetite. Kessler reveals startling facts. Did you know that many foods are created to stimulate the appetite even after we're full and are engineered to literally melt in your mouth so that you'll eat faster and consume more calories? You may never look at restaurant chicken, often injected with sugar, salt and fat, the same way again.

August Kleinzahler

Mon, June 16, 2008

August Kleinzahler's six books of poetry include The Strange Hours Travelers Keep which won the 2004 Griffin International Poetry Award.

Irwin Kula

Mon, 04 August 2008 9:00:00 PDT

One of the new leaders shaping the American spiritual landscape, Rabbi Irwin Kula brings the insights of ancient Jewish wisdom to the challenges of the present to help people live more fully. A regular television and radio commentator and the Co-President of The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Kula offers fresh and incisive perspectives on today's cultural and political landscape. Prepare to be inspired.

Josh Kun

Mon, 29 Jun 2009

Author and scholar, Josh Kun, follows Jewish cultural history though the trail of vinyl LP records, in front of a live audience at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.

Rabbi Harold Kushner

Mon, 30 Nov 2009

The bestselling author of the quintessential book on self-healing, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, now inspires you to overcome that crippling disease: fear. In Conquering Fear, Kushner cites true accounts that strike deep chords and inspire people into life-changing action. Weaving personal experience with religious teachings, Rabbi Kushner shows that opportunity is the flip side of fear.

Reassessing Obama with George Lakoff, Rabbi Michael Lerner and Marianne Williamson

Thu, 20 May 2010

President Obama received the overwhelming support of Bay Area voters, and nationally 80% of the Jewish population voted for him. Has President Obama moved in the directions we had expected, what have been the constraints on him, and what can we do to support him to be the Obama we voted for?

Liz Lerman and Jake Heggie

Mon, 11 May 2009

Lerman and Heggie discuss, Lerman's work - Small Dances About Big Ideas; a choreographed event that takes a challenging look at mass violence, the scope of human compassion, and the capacity of the law to address genocide and other systematic atrocities.

Johnathan Lethem

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 9:00:00 PDT

Part of the pleasure of reading Jonathan Lethem lies in charting the author's cultural obsessions. His early books were born under the sign of Raymond Chandler and Philip K. Dick, and later works sealed his reputation as the consummate young novelist with dense cross-weaves of Brooklyn, 1970's art rock, and Italo Calvino.

Simon LeVay

Mon, 8 Nov 2010

In 1991, Simon LeVay reported that he had found a difference in brain structure between gay and straight men. Now the British neuroscientist and author of When Science Goes Wrong has a radical new theory. In Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why, he claims that sexual orientation arises in large part from biological processes prior to birth.

Bernard-Henri Levy

Mon, 24 Nov 2008

Levy is a French public intellectual and journalist. One of the leaders of the Nouvelle Philosophie movement in 1976, Levy was one of the first French intellectuals to call for intervention in Bosnia in the 1990s, and spoke out early about Serbian concentration camps before co-founding an Institute on Levinassian Studies at Jerusalem.

Yiyun Li

Mon, 1 Nov, 2010

The New Yorker recently named Bay Area writer Yiyun Li one of the "Top 20 Fiction Writers Under 40." Set in 1970s China, her debut novel, The Vagrants, follows the people of a small town after the harrowing execution of a young woman, a former Red Guard counterrevolutionary.

Daniel Libeskind

Wed, 02 Jul, 2008

One of the world's most influential architects, Daniel Libeskind has created work resonant with Jewish history and ideas, among them the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, currently under construction. He was also awarded the master plan design for Ground Zero and the World Trade Center site in New York, a project that has resulted in great controversy.

Gregory Maguire

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 9:00:00 PDT

Gregory Maguire's best-selling Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, became the basis for the Tony Award-winning musical, Wicked. He has also authored bestsellers Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Lost, Mirror Mirror, and Son of a Witch, the sequel to Wicked. Step inside the mind of the man who inspires Broadway as he discusses his work.

Norris Church Mailer

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 9:00:00 PDT

Norris Church Mailer was a 26-year-old divorced mother and hippie art teacher when 52-year-old Norman Mailer swept her off her feet. Her new book, A Ticket to the Circus, is a bittersweet memoir that depicts her marriage and offers insight into how we grow up and how we love.

David Mamet

Mon, 16 Feb 2009

David Alan Mamet's works are known for their clever, terse, sometimes vulgar dialogue and arcane stylized phrasing, as well as for his exploration of masculinity. He received Tony Award nominations for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). As a screenwriter, he received Oscar nominations for The Verdict (1982) and Wag the Dog (1997).

Reva Mann

Mon, 02 June 2008 9:00:00 PDT

In her first novel The Rabbi's Daughter, Reva Mann offered a glimpse into the world of ultra-Orthodox Jews and their elaborately coded rituals for eating, sleeping, bathing and love-making, as well as a deeply personal rumination on identity, faith and self-acceptance. For those of any faith who have grappled with their own spiritual longings, and anyone fascinated by traditional religion and its role in modern society, Reva Mann's chronicle of a journey toward redemption was unforgettable.

Greil Marcus

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 9:00:00 PDT

Born in 1945, Greil Marcus, an American author, music journalist and cultural critic, is notable for producing a series of scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.

Christopher McDougall

Thu, 7 Oct 2010 9:00:00 PDT

Journalist Christopher McDougall shares the secrets of the Tarahumara Indians whose practiced techniques allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest.

Michael Medved and Norman Podhoretz

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 9:00:00 PDT

Radio host Michael Medved (The 10 Big Lies About America) says contempt for free enterprise is fueled by five big lies about American business. Among those lies: that pursuit of profit damages the public interest and undermines values. With his trademark slashing wit, he joins neoconservative trailblazer Norman Podhoretz (World War IV) to discuss what's wrong with Jewish liberalism and why we should feel grateful for our corporate system.

Juan Mejia

Fri, 25 June 2010 9:00:00 PDT

Born in Columbia, Rabbi Juan Mejia was on his way to becoming a monk when he discovered his family's Jewish roots. Like most anusim, or descendents of Iberian Jews forced to convert to Catholicism during the Inquisition who continued to practice Judaism in secrecy, Rabbi Mejia was unaware of his origins. Now he devotes his life to teaching anusim wherever they may be.

Daniel Mendelsohn

Wed, 02 Jul, 2008

The classics scholar, literary critic and award-winning author of the acclaimed memoir The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million discusses his search for missing relatives, the "overfamiliarity" of the Holocaust and why we should listen to our elders.

Aaron David Miller and Linda Gradstein

Thurs, 22 Apr, 2010

Author and political analyst Aaron David Miller and NPR commentator Linda Gradstein offer insider views on Clinton, Bush and Obama in the Middle East and the elusive search for Arab-Israeli peace.

Richard Milner

Mon, 1 Jun 2009

Darwin historian, Richard Milner shares some of the lesser known aspects of Darwin's life.

Agi Mishol

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 9:00:00 PDT

One of Israel's most celebrated poets, Agi Mishol discusses her work and her growing up in Israel as the child of Holocaust survivors.

Azadeh Moaveni

Mon, 13 Apr 2009

Time magazine correspondent Azadeh Moaveni talks about her writings on Iran.

Lorrie Moore

Mon, 14 Sept 2009 9:00:00 PDT

The wickedly humorous Lorrie Moore, is an author with a deep sensitivity to the dynamics of relationships and the American national character. Though best known for award-winning story collections, Birds of America, Like Life, and Self-Help, her novels are also infused with virtuosic prose. She joins us to discuss her life, her writing and her new novel, A Gate at the Stairs. Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) is the bestselling author of A Series of Unfortunate Events as well as several other children's books, novels and screenplays.

Benny Morris

Mon, 2 March 2009

Born in 1948, Benny Morris is the leading figure among Israel's "New Historians," whose work over the past two decades has challenged the traditional, accepted line of the birth of Israel. His books include Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001; Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956; and The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. His latest book, 1948, is a richly detailed and engaging portrait of the foundation war in the Arab-Israeli conflict - from its origins to its unresolved aftermath - that further shatters myths on both sides of the divide.

Mark Morris (Dec, 2007)

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 9:00:00 PDT

One of the defining artistic minds of contemporary dance discusses his life and work.

Mark Morris (June, 2009)

Mon, 22 Jun 2009

Described as one of the most outspoken, theatrical and hilarious choreographers working in dance today, Mark Morris talks about some of his most enduring works in this second conversation hosted at the JCCSF.

Asher Naim

Fri, 18 May 2009

Ethiopian Jews from Operation Solomon to Israel 2008 offer a behind the scenes story of the exodus of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

Ann Packer

Mon, 13 Apr 2009

Author Ann Packer talks about her latest novel, Songs Without Words.

Tribute to Grace Paley

Wed, 13 Nov 2008 9:00:00 PDT

Maxine Hong Kingston, Chana Block and Susan Griffin celebrate the life of Grace Paley, whose generous spirit animated her writing, as well as her deep engagement with social and political issues. Whether fighting for equal rights for women or protesting American foreign policy, Grace was a tireless defender of free expression and human rights. Her compassion and vitality animated her poetry and short stories, making her one of America's most influential and beloved writers.

Orhan Pamuk

Mon, 4 Feb 2008 9:00:00 PDT

Meet the man behind the books and controversy, Turkish novelist and Nobel-prize winner Orhan Pamuk, whose works include The Black Book, My Name is Red, Snow and Istambul.

Robert Pinsky

Mon 09 Feb 2009

Robert Pinsky is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. He is the author of nineteen books, mostly poetry, and his published work includes critically acclaimed translations. He teaches at Boston University.

Mary Pipher

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 9:00:00 PDT

Mary Pipher became a cultural force in 1994 with the publication of Reviving Ophelia, the book that opened America's eyes to the psychological toll that adolescent girls face growing up in a country rife with sexual abuse, school violence and an overwhelming pressure to be thin. Since that time, she's explored the cultural psychology of families and elderly people in an effort to reveal new truths about American society.

Neal Pollack

Tue, 5 May 2009

The Hub presents Neal Pollack, author of four books, including Alternadad, a wryly honest chronicle of his early days as a parent, in conversation with Dan Wolf at the Amnesia Bar in San Francisco.

Michael Pollan and Dean Ornish

Mon, 28 Dec 2009

Michael Pollan says that instead of food, we're consuming "edible food-like substances." The Western diet has traded food for nutrients and common sense for confusion. The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we seem to become. Thirty years of nutritional advice has only made us sicker and fatter. Learn what Pollan offers as a simple solution to eating well. Dr. Dean Ornish is founder and president of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito.

Richard Powers

Mon, 17 March 2008 9:00:00 PDT

The New York Times calls Richard Powers "one of our most lavishly gifted writers." Author of Galatea 2.2 and The Time of Our Singing, Powers, who won this year's National Book Award for his latest novel The Echo Maker, explores the effects of modern science and technology in his work.

Francine Prose (November 2008)

Mon, 17 Nov 2008

Prose is an American novelist and president of PEN American Center. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1968, received a Guggenheim fellowship and has sat on the board of judges for the PEN/Newman's Own Award. Her novel Blue Angel, a satire about sexual harassment on college campuses, was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Francine Prose (November 2009)

Wed, 18 Nov 2009

A Revealing Look at an Ambitious Young Writer With John Felstiner. We remember Anne Frank's diary as a heartbreaking look into a private life tragically cut short. But Francine Prose argues that Anne Frank's book was intended for the public, and if history had been different, would likely have been the first of many in the young author's career. With the understanding one great writer has for another, Prose deftly parses the artistry and enduring influence of The Diary of a Young Girl. Discover a side of Anne Frank you might not have known: the ambitious writer tirelessly perfecting her craft. John Felstiner is a Stanford professor and author of Can Poetry Save the Earth? and Paul Celan.

Jane Bryant Quinn

Mon, 25 Mar 2010

Jane Bryant Quinn is an award-winning columnist for Newsweek and Bloomberg, and the author of the wildly bestselling Making the Most of Your Money. She's cornered the market on simple but essential advice for people of any age to plan for their financial future.

Jonah Raskin

Mon, 19 Jan 2009

Jonah Raskin's latest book, The Radical Jack London covers Jack London's political writing. Raskin, an American writer who left an East Coast university teaching position to participate in the 1970s radical counterculture as a free-lance journalist, returned to the academy in California in the 1980s to write probing studies of Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg, and reviews of northern California writers whom he styled as "natives, newcomers, exiles and fugitives."

Ruth Reichl

Thu, 13 May 2010

Ruth Reichl is the former restaurant critic of both The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, the former editor of Gourmet magazine, and also a gifted, insightful memoirist. Her latest book examines the life of her mother, giving voice to the painful truth that many women of that generation had to sacrifice their dreams.

Richard Rodriguez and Steven Zipperstein

Mon, 22 Mar 2010

Stanford historian Steve Zipperstein and renowned author Richard Rodriguez talk about the life and career of Isaac Rosenfeld and what makes a writer successful.

Jonathan Rosen

Wed, 4 June 2008 9:00:00 PDT

The New Yorker and The New York Times contributor, Jonathan Rosen brings an engaging perspective to the popular pastime of birdwatching with his novel The Life of the Skies.

Alex Ross

Wed, 02 Jul 2008

In his long-awaited first book, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross' democratic, love of the artform grounds 20th-century classical music in a wide political and cultural context that highlights its intersections with the pop, rock, and hip-hop realms.

Kay Ryan

Mon, 01 Mar 2010

Rejecting the stylized self-consciousness that characterizes so much contemporary poetry, Kay Ryan chooses instead to write poetry accessible to a broad audience, coloring her poems with sly humor and dramatic imagination. Treat yourself to an evening with this renowned Bay Area poet.

Michael J. Sandel

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 9:00:00 PDT

Michael J. Sandel is one of the most popular professors at Harvard. Thousands of students pack into his Justice course on moral and political philosophy. Adapting his famous course for the road, Sandel discusses great philosophers from Aristotle to John Stuart Mill and raises questions about individual rights, the claims of community, equality and law.

Marjane Satrapi

Wed, 4 June 2008 9:00:00 PDT

When published in France, Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis, the story of growing up in Iran during the Islamic revolution and war with Iraq garnered comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Maus and won several prestigious comic book awards.

David Sax

Thurs, 8 April 2010 9:00:00 PDT

Journalist and lifelong deli obsessive David Sax asserts that assimilation, homogenization and health food trends are killing our delis.

Rabbi Marc Schneier and Martin Luther King III

Tues, 13 April 2010 9:00:00 PDT

These two prominent leaders engage in candid conversation about Jewish-African American relations, addressing both problems and solutions, from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Barack Obama.

Dan Senor

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 9:00:00 PDT

How is it that Israel produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, stable nations like Canada, Japan, India and the UK? Policy insider Dean Senor explains why Israel's policies on immigration, national service, and R&D have been key to Israel's economic growth, and how the world's first "start-up nation" can inform America's successes at a time when innovation is key to our economic recovery. Presented in partnership with the Israel Center of the Jewish Community Federation and the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest.

Meir Shalev

Mon, 7 Dec 2009 9:00:00 PDT

Internationally acclaimed Israeli writer Meir Shalev "creates a world that has the richness of invention and the obsessiveness of dreams," wrote The New York Times Book Review of his novel A Pigeon and a Boy. Don't miss this discussion with one of Israel's foremost literary figures.

Natan Sharansky

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 9:00:00 PDT

Former Soviet dissident, political prisoner, and human rights icon, Natan Sharansky has spent his life championing democracy and freedom. In 1977, he was arrested by the KGB for his activism and his support for Soviet Jewry's demands to emigrate to Israel and imprisoned for nine years. His latest book, Defending Identity, is a piercing examination of the dominant force that shapes political interactions and its indispensable role in protecting democracy.

Neil Shubin

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 9:00:00 PDT

Neil Shubin, the scientist who made the groundbreaking discovery of the "fish with hands," takes us on a lively, thoroughly engrossing chronicle of evolutionary history that unearths the often startling secrets behind why we look the way we do.

Scott Simon

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 9:00:00 PDT

NPR radio host and Peabody Award-winning Scott Simon reveals the story of his daughter's adoption in his book, Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other.

Jane Smiley

Wed, 02 July 2008 9:00:00 PDT

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres has written eleven novels. An outspoken anti-Bush blogger, Smiley speaks her mind on subjects ranging from horse training to marriage, Barbie, and impulse buying. Her new novel Ten Days in the Hills is about Hollywood and sex.

Rebecca Solnit

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 9:00:00 PDT

One of San Francisco's most provocative writers, Rebecca Solnit explores major disaster and discovers people's capacity to rise to the occasion with creativity and courage.

Kevin Starr and John Rothmann

Thurs, 15 Apr 2010 9:00:00 PDT

Former California State Historian Kevin Starr talks to KGO Radio's John Rothmann about the final volume of his magnum opus on the Golden State.

Oliver Stone

Mon, 5 Nov 2007 9:00:00 PDT

Get the inside track from this dynamic and controversial film director of JFK, Platoon, Born of the Fourth of July, The Doors, Natural Born Killers and more.

Elizabeth Strout

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 9:00:00 PDT

Strout's Pulitzer-winning Olive Kitteridge binds thirteen luminous short stories into a narrative with the heft of a novel. Through perceptive eyes, Strout exposes the lives of people in a small Maine town for all their grand drama.

Joseph Telushkin

Wed, 2 July 2008 9:00:00 PDT

The author of Jewish Literacy, the most poplar book on Judaism of the past two decades, is now working on a multi-volume presentation of Jewish teachings on personal character, integrity and living an honorable and ethical life.

Three Rabbis Walk into a Room

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 9:00:00 PDT

Rabbis representing the Conservative, Reform and Orthodox movements - Micah Hyman, Jonathan Jaffee and Joshua Strulowitz - address difficult questions and give candid answers on the meaning of community, what it means to be a Jew, and moral and legal issues such as capital punishment, abortion and euthanasia.

Wayne Thiebaud

Fri, 7 Dec 2007 9:00:00 PDT

Gain insight to one of the most prominent artists of the Bay Area Figurative Movement in California, Wayne Thiebaud, a San Francisco-based painter, who is best-known for his vivid, thickly textured paintings depicting mass culture, from cakes to city scenes.

Richard Thompson Ford

Mon, 10 March 2008 9:00:00 PDT

What do Katrina victims waiting for federal disaster relief, millionaire rappers buying vintage champagne, Ivy League professors waiting for taxis, and ghetto hustlers trying to find steady work have in common? All have claimed to be victims of racism. Stanford Law School Professor Richard Thompson Ford brings sophisticated legal analysis, lively and eye-popping anecdotes, and plain old common sense to this heated topic.

Robert Thurman

Wed, 02 July 2008 9:00:00 PDT

An international authority on world religions and spirituality, Asian history, philosophy and Tibetan Buddhism, Thurman is an eloquent teacher of the relevance of Eastern knowledge and ideas to our daily lives. Drawing an analogy between Tibetans and Jews in regard to finding the courage to overcome genocide and exile, Thurman encourages incorporating Eastern traditions into your life as a way of "enriching what you already are."

Jonathan Tropper

Mon, 14 Dec 2009

The author of How to Talk to a Widower, Everything Changes and Plan B returns with a side-splitting, heartbreaking New York Times bestseller. This Is Where I Leave You is also being adapted into a Warner Brothers feature film.

John Updike

Mon, 15 Dec 2008

John Hoyer Updike's most famous work is his Rabbit series. He was widely recognized for his careful craftsmanship, highly stylistic prose, and prolific output, having published more than twenty novels and more than a dozen short story collections, as well as poetry, art criticism, literary criticism and children's books.

Richard Weissbourd

Wed, 21 Apr 2010

Harvard psychologist Richard Weissbourd forcefully asserts that adults fail their children by insisting on a child's happiness rather than moral goodness. His book,The Parents We Mean To Be, emphasizes empathy over personal fulfillment, making the case that, as models of behavior, parents must be vigilant about their own moral choices.

Drew Westen

Wed, 23 Jul, 2008

Drew Westen's The Political Brain tell us that in politics, when reason and emotion collide, emotion invariably wins. Westen, professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at Emory University, takes us on a tour of speeches, ads, and campaign strategy in American elections - from the dawn of the television era through the 2006 midterm elections - and shows how the political landscape would change if candidates began with a twenty-first century understanding of how the mind and brain really work.

Michael Wex

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 9:00:00 PDT

Translator, novelist and performer Wex follows his witty and erudite Born to Kvetch with Just Say Nu, a colorful, uncensored guide to the idiomatic use of Yiddish in such areas as madness, fury, driving, mob Yiddish, insults and thirteen designations for the human rear.

Debra Winger

Wed, 16 Jul, 2008

Award-winning actress Debra Winger, best known for her film roles in movies such as An Officer and a Gentleman and Terms of Endearment, as well as her decision to turn her back on acting at the height of her career, will talk about her life and career.

Paula Wolfert

Thurs, 01 Apr, 2010

Learn why Mediterranean food "tastes better cooked in clay" with Paula Wolfert, premier food writer and queen of mediterranean cooking, as she celebrates the launch of her book, Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking: Traditional and Modern Recipes to Savor and Share.

A B Yehoshua

Fri, June 02, 2008

Israel's master novelist Abraham B. Yehoshua astonishes readers with his masterful, unexpected turns in storylines and his ability to get under the skin and into the soul of Israel today.

Philip Zimbardo

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 9:00:00 PDT

World-renowned psychologist Philip Zimbardo tells us how good people sometimes turn evil, a phenomenon he calls The Lucifer Effect Zimbardo's classic work is The Stanford Prison Experiment, in which students took on roles of captor and captive with startling results.

Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg

Mon, May 5, 2009

From one of the most innovative biblical commentators at work today comes a revolutionary analysis of the intersection between religion and psychoanalysis in the stories of the men and women of the Bible. In her latest book, The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious,Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg makes the revolutionary argument that biblical commentators were aware of the complex interplay between conscious and unconscious levels of experience, and used this knowledge in their interpretations.

Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg

Fri, Apr 30, 2010

This is her second appearance on our podcast listing. Her lecture is entitled Laughter in the story of Sarah.