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City Arts & Lectures: Daily Summaries Delivered
by City Arts & Lectures
Since 1980, City Arts & Lectures has presented onstage conversations with outstanding figures in literature, politics, criticism, science, and the performing arts, offering the most diverse perspectives about ideas and values. The broadcasts are co-produced with KQED 88.5 FM in San Francisco.
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- 5 days ago35 min
Rebecca Blumenstein and Diana Kapp on "The Last Free Women"
On August 15, 2021, fighters entered Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, and the US-backed Islamic Republic of Afghanistan collapsed. Over 100,000 people were evacuated, and among them, locals who had worked for the New York Times. In their book, The Last Free Women, A Daring Escape from Afghanistan. Journalists Rebecca Blumenstein and Diana Capp detailed the New York Times' efforts to get them out and the lives of four of the women after they arrived in the United States. Blumenstein and Capp came to KQED Studios on August 3, 2026 to talk about the book with journalist Deepa Fernandez.
- 5 days ago38 min
Danny Meyer
The legendary restaurateur Danny Meyer’s new book, What Could Go Right, is about the unique culture of his restaurant group, from some of New York's best known fine dining institutions like Union Square Café and Gramercy Tavern to Shake Shack, a burger chain with nearly 400 locations. On October 8, 2026, Meyer came to KQED Studios to talk to Steven Wynn about what he defines as true hospitality and some of the highs and lows of his decades in the business.
- 1 weeks ago1h 14m
Kyle MacLachlan
Kyle MacLachlan has built a fascinating acting career, performing in everything from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks to the adaptation of the video game Fallout. In the process, he has become a beloved cultural icon. MacLachlan’s 1984 film debut was the starring role in Lynch’s Dune. He would go on to work with the experimental director on multiple projects, including the classic film Blue Velvet. For his performance as Special Agent Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks, MacLachlan won a Golden Globe and gained international fame. More recently, he has gained a new group of fans through his award-winning performance in the show Fallout and the crime comedy show The Lowdown, his podcasts, and social media. On October 2, 2026, Kyle MacLachlan came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk with Jesse Hawthorne Ficks about his new memoir Fictional Selves.
- 2 weeks ago1h 25m
Leila Slimani
Leila Slimani
- 3 weeks ago1h 5m
Kristin Hanna
Kristin Hannah’s award-winning, best-selling novels, including the international hit The Nightingale, celebrate the all-too-often forgotten power of women across history. Her newest book, The Women, tells the story of one woman coming of age in the turbulence of 1960s America. In the process, Hannah shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm’s way to help others. An intimate portrait of a turbulent, transformative time in America, the novel explores a generation who were scarred on the battlefields only to return to a divided nation. On September 23, 2026, Kristin Hannah came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to be interviewed on stage by Yangsze Choo, whose novels include The Fox Wife, The Ghost Bride, and The Night Tiger.
- Oct 4, 20261h 23m
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, two of today’s most significant intellectuals, examine extremism and other contemporary movements in their new book, End Times Fascism. It’s a scathing investigation of, and strategies for fighting against, the Christian nationalists, Silicon Valley reactionaries, and populist survivalists who define the contemporary, apocalyptic right. An award-winning journalist, filmmaker, and author, Naomi Klein’s now classic books, including Doppelganger, No Logo, and The Shock Doctrine, have been translated into 35 languages. She is an associate professor of geography and co-director of the Centre for Climate Justice at the University of British Columbia.Astra Taylor is an award-winning writer, activist, and documentarian. She cofounded the Debt Collective, a union fighting to cancel debt, work that has made her an influential critic of late capitalism. She is the author of The People’s Platform, which won the American Book Award; Democracy May Not Exist, But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone; and The Age of Insecurity. On September 22, 2026, Astra Taylor and Naomi Klein came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk about End Times Fascism with Poulomi Saha, Chair of the Program in Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley.
- Sep 27, 20261h 9m
Emily St. John Mandel
Our guest this week is Emily St. John Mandel, a writer whose work experiments with literary noir, speculative fiction, and horror. Her bestselling books include The Glass Hotel and Sea of Tranquility, and her post-apocalyptic novel Station Eleven was adapted into a limited series for HBO. This year, Mandel returns with her new novel Exit Party, diving into a future United States locked in a new civil war. It is within this painful landscape that Mandel explores freedom, surveillance, and the possibility of a better world.On September 18, 2026, Emily St. John Mandel came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk with Daniel Handler, the author of numerous books for all ages – sometimes under the pen name Lemony Snicket.
- Sep 20, 20261h 23m
Bryan Stevenson
Civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson has dedicated his career to helping the poor, defending the incarcerated, and fighting for equality and justice. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative. The nonprofit has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of incarcerated people, and ending mandatory life-without-parole sentences for children. His book Just Mercy is a New York Times bestseller, and was made into a film starring Michael B. Jordan. On September 10, 2026, Bryan Stevenson came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk with Lisa Armstrong, a journalist and professor at the UC Berkeley School of Journalism.
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About City Arts & Lectures
Since 1980, City Arts & Lectures has presented onstage conversations with outstanding figures in literature, politics, criticism, science, and the performing arts, offering the most diverse perspectives about ideas and values. The broadcasts are co-produced with KQED 88.5 FM in San Francisco.
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