Live Talks Los Angeles
P. J. O’Rourke in conversation with Adam Felber at Live Talks Los Angeles, March 22, 2017, discussing his upcoming book, How the Hell Did This Happen? The Election of 2016.
 
The talk took place at the Moss Theatre in Santa Monica, CA.

An essential take on the stranger-than-fiction (and stranger-than-fact) 2016 presidential elections from a quintessential voice on American politics and culture

P. J. O’Rourke has written eighteen books on subjects as diverse as politics and cars and etiquette and economics. Parliament of Whores and Give War a Chanceboth reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. He is a contributing editor at the Weekly Standard, H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute, a regular panelist on NPR’s Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me, and a columnist for The Stansberry Digest investment letter. 

This election cycle was so absurd that celebrated political satirist, journalist, and diehard Republican P. J. O’Rourke endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. As P.J. put it, “America is experiencing the most severe outbreak of mass psychosis since the Salem witch trials of 1692. So why not put Hillary on the dunking stool?”

In his latest book, P.J. brings his critical eye and inimitable voice to some seriously risky business. Starting in June 2015, he asks, “Who are these jacklegs, high-binders, wire-pullers, mountebanks, swellheads, buncombe spigots, four-flushers and animated spittoons offering themselves as worthy of America’s highest office?” and surveys the full cast of presidential candidates including everyone you’ve already forgotten and everyone you still wish you could forget.

P.J. offers a brief history of how our insane process for picking who will run for president, concluding: “Consistency is not a hallmark of American politics, but exceptions are made when the constant is stupidity. Today’s primaries are as stupid as they’ve always been.” He takes us through the debates and key primaries and analyzes everything from the campaign platforms (or lack thereof) to presidential fashion sense, rising from the depths of despair to come up with a better way to choose a president (starting with a road trip). Following his come-to-Satan moment with Hillary and the Beginning of End Times in November, PJ reckons with a new age: “America is experiencing a change in the nature of leadership. We’re getting rid of our leaders. And we’re starting at the top.” How the Hell Did This Happen? answers the key questions of a presidential election where both candidates were running against the most formidable of opponents—themselves. 

Adam Felber is an American political satirist, author, radio personality, actor, humorist, novelist, television writer, and comic book writer. Felber attended Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, and graduated as an English major in 1989. He has lived in Brooklyn, New York, and now lives in Los Angeles, California.

He is a regular panel member (and occasional guest host) of the NPR radio quiz show, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!. Felber is the author of the novel Schrödinger’s Ball, which uses as a conceit the concept of Schrödinger’s cat.[1] He has also written for several television shows including Real Time with Bill MaherTalkshow with Spike FerestenArthurThe Smoking Gun, and Wishbone.

Felber also wrote the second Skrull Kill Krew limited series for Marvel Comics in 2009 as part of the Secret Invasion event.[2]

Felber’s mother is the late romance novelist, Edith Layton.

Direct download: LTLA.P.J.ORourke_Pod.Mix.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:18pm EDT

Reza Aslan in conversation with Gotham Chopra at Live Talks Los Angeles, March 92017 --  a conversation and featuring clips from the new CNN Original Series, Believer with Reza Aslan.
 
The talk took place at the theatre at United Talent Agency in Beverly Hills, CA.
  
 
 
This event is presented in association with CNN. 
 
Believer with Reza Aslan is a CNN Original Series that follows best-selling author and scholar of religions Reza Aslan as he immerses himself in customs and faith rituals around the globe. In the six-part spiritual adventure series, Aslan explores Ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Israel, Scientology in the U.S., Hindu asceticism in India, Vodou in Haiti, Santa Muerte in Mexico, and an apocalyptic doomsday cult in Hawaii. The hour-long series premieres Sunday, March 5, at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
 
Reza Aslan is an internationally renowned writer. His books, including his #1 New York Times Bestseller Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, have been translated into dozens of languages around the world. 
 
Aslan’s first book, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, has been translated into seventeen languages, and was named one of the 100 most important books of the last decade by Blackwell Publishers. He is also the author of Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in a Globalized Age (originally titled How to Win a Cosmic War), as well as editor of two volumes: Tablet and Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East, and Muslims and Jews in America: Commonalties, Contentions, and Complexities.
 
In addition to his continuing role as a Consulting Producer on the acclaimed HBO series The Leftovers, Aslan is also the host and Executive Producer of the television program Rough Draft with Reza Aslan, which premiered on Ovation in February.  He served as an Executive Producer on the ABC drama, Of Kings and Prophets. 
 
Aslan received his Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from Santa Clara University (Major focus: New Testament; Minor: Greek), a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard University (Major focus: History of Religions), a PhD in the Sociology of Religions from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa.
 
Aslan is a tenured Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside and serves on the board of trustees for the Chicago Theological Seminary and The Yale Humanist Community, which supports atheists, agnostics, and humanists at home and abroad. A member of the American Academy of Religions, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the International Qur’anic Studies Association.


Gotham Chopra
 is a filmmaker, author, and entrepreneur.  Most recently, along with NFL icons Tom Brady and Michael Strahan, he created and launched the original documentary series The Religion of Sports, which was just renewed for a second season and will air later this year. He’s also currently working on TV projects with both LeBron James and Ronda Rousey. Chopra’s past TV credits include multiple ESPN projects and his critically acclaimed documentary Kobe Bryant’s Muse, which was the highest performing sports documentary ever on the Showtime Network. Gotham is also behind the feature film Decoding Deepak about his father, spiritual guru Deepak Chopra. As a former journalist, Gotham reported from countless warzones and interviewed a wide range of global leaders – from President Clinton to the Dalai Lama giving him a unique worldview. Gotham’s varied experience in journalism, publishing, and entertainment had him identified by Newsweek Magazine as one of the “most powerful and influential” South Asians worth watching. Gotham currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and son and is passionate about his hometown of Boston’s sports teams

Direct download: LTLA.Reza_Aslan_Pod._Mix.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:13pm EDT

Jami Attenberg in conversation with Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney at Live Talks Los Angeles, March 21, 2017, discussing the writing life and her new novel, All Grown Up.
 
The talk took place at the Moss Theatre in Santa Monica, CA.

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Middlesteins comes a wickedly funny novel about a thirty-nine-year-old single, childfree woman who defies convention as she seeks connection.

Jami Attenberg  is the New York Times bestselling author of five novels, including The Middlesteins and Saint Mazie. She has contributed essays about sex, urban life, and food to The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and Lenny Letter, among other publications. She divides her time between Brooklyn and New Orleans.

“Jami Attenberg’s sharply drawn protagonist, Andrea, has such a riveting, propulsive voice that All Grown Up is hard to put down, but I urge you to resist reading it in one sitting. Both the prose and the author’s knowing excavation of one woman’s desires, compromises, strengths, and fears deserve closer attention. Like Andrea herself, this novel is beautiful and brutal, intelligent and funny, frank and sexy.”—Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, New York Times best-selling author of The Nest

“Hilarious, courageous, and mesmerizing from page one, All Grown Up is a little gem that packs a devastating wallop. It’s that rare book I’m dying to give all my friends so we can discuss it deep into the night. I’m in awe of Jami Attenberg.” —Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette

Who is Andrea Bern? When her therapist asks the question, Andrea knows the right things to say: she’s a designer, a friend, a daughter, a sister. But it’s what she leaves unsaid—she’s alone, a drinker, a former artist, a shrieker in bed, captain of the sinking ship that is her flesh—that feels the most true. Everyone around her seems to have an entirely different idea of what it means to be an adult: her best friend, Indigo, is getting married; her brother—who miraculously seems unscathed by their shared tumultuous childhood—and sister-in-law are having a hoped-for baby; and her friend Matthew continues to wholly devote himself to making dark paintings at the cost of being flat broke. 

But when Andrea’s niece finally arrives, born with a heartbreaking ailment, the Bern family is forced to reexamine what really matters. Will this drive them together or tear them apart? Told in gut-wrenchingly honest, mordantly comic vignettes, All Grown Up is a breathtaking display of Jami Attenberg’s power as a storyteller, a whip-smart examination of one woman’s life, lived entirely on her own terms.
 
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney is the New York Timesbestselling author of The Nest,which has been translated into more than 25 languages and optioned for film by Amazon Studios with Sweeney writing the adaptation. She has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. The Nest is her first novel.
Direct download: LTLA.Jami_Attenberg_Pod._Mix.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:10pm EDT

Colm Tóibín in conversation with Scott Timberg at Live Talks Los Angeles, May 22, 2017, discussing the writing life and his upcoming novel,
House of Names.
 
The talk took place at the Moss Theatre in Santa Monica, CA.

Colm Tóibín is the author of seven novels, including The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; The Testament of Mary, and Nora Webster, as well as two story collections. Three times shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Tóibín lives in Dublin and New York. He previously appeared at Live Talks Los Angeles to discuss James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room.  Watch the video.

In House of Names, Colm Tóibín brings a modern sensibility and language to an ancient classic, and gives this extraordinary character new life, so that we not only believe Clytemnestra’s thirst for revenge, but applaud it. He brilliantly inhabits the mind of one of Greek myth’s most powerful villains to reveal the love, lust, and pain she feels. Told in fours parts, this is a fiercely dramatic portrait of a murderess, who will herself be murdered by her own son, Orestes. It is Orestes’ story, too: his capture by the forces of his mother’s lover Aegisthus, his escape and his exile. And it is the story of the vengeful Electra, who watches over her mother and Aegisthus with cold anger and slow calculation, until, on the return of her brother, she has the fates of both of them in her hands.

“I have been acquainted with the smell of death.” So begins Clytemnestra’s tale of her own life in ancient Mycenae, the legendary Greek city from which her husband King Agamemnon left when he set sail with his army for Troy. Clytemnestra rules Mycenae now, along with her new lover Aegisthus, and together they plot the bloody murder of Agamemnon on the day of his return after nine years at war.

Judged, despised, cursed by gods she has long since lost faith in, Clytemnestra reveals the tragic saga that led to these bloody actions: how her husband deceived her eldest daughter Iphigeneia with a promise of marriage to Achilles, only to sacrifice her because that is what he was told would make the winds blow in his favor and take him to Troy; how she seduced and collaborated with the prisoner Aegisthus, who shared her bed in the dark and could kill; how Agamemnon came back with a lover himself; and how Clytemnestra finally achieved her vengeance for his stunning betrayal—his quest for victory, greater than his love for his child.

Scott Timberg is a Los Angeles-based arts and culture writer. A former Los Angeles Times and Salon staffer, he writes these days for The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Paris Review online, LMU Magazine, and the New York Times. Timberg edited, with Dana Gioia, the anthology The Misread City: New Literary Los Angeles (Red Hen). He’s the author, most recently, of Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class (Yale University Press), and runs the accompanying ArtsJournal blog CultureCrash. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMisreadCity. 

Direct download: LTLA.Colm_Toibin_Pod.Mix.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:59pm EDT

Charmaine Craig in conversation with Jane Smiley at Live Talks Los Angeles, May 10, 2017, discussing her novel, "Miss Burma."
 

The talk took place at the William Turner Gallery at Bergamot Station Arts Center in 
Santa Monica, CA.

This event is part of our Newer Voices Series.
— Q&A with Charmaine Craig

Charmaine Craig is a faculty member in the Department of Creative Writing at UC Riverside, and the descendant of significant figures in Burma’s modern history. A former actor in film and television, she studied literature at Harvard University and received her MFA from the University of California, Irvine. Her first novel, The Good Men (Riverhead), was a national bestseller translated into six languages.

Jane Smiley is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres,which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and most recently, Golden AgeSome Luckand Early Warning, the volumes of The Last Hundred Years trilogy. She is also the author of five works of nonfiction and a series of books for young adults. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she has also received the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature.

Miss Burma is a beautiful and poignant story of one family during the most violent and turbulent years of world history. Miss Burma is a powerful novel of love and war, colonialism and ethnicity, and the ties of blood.

Miss Burma tells the story of modern-day Burma through the eyes of Benny and Khin, husband and wife, and their daughter Louisa. After attending school in Calcutta, Benny settles in Rangoon, then part of the British Empire, and falls in love with Khin, a woman who is part of a long-persecuted ethnic minority group, the Karen. World War II comes to Southeast Asia, and Benny and Khin must go into hiding in the eastern part of the country during the Japanese Occupation, beginning a journey that will lead them to change the country’s history. After the war, the British authorities make a deal with the Burman nationalists, led by Aung San, whose party gains control of the country. When Aung San is assassinated, his successor ignores the pleas for self-government of the Karen people and other ethnic groups, and in doing so sets off what will become the longest-running civil war in recorded history. Benny and Khin’s eldest child, Louisa, has a danger-filled, tempestuous childhood and reaches prominence as Burma’s first beauty queen soon before the country falls to dictatorship. As Louisa navigates her newfound fame, she is forced to reckon with her family’s past, the West’s ongoing covert dealings in her country, and her own loyalty to the cause of the Karen people.

Based on the story of the author’s mother and grandparents, Miss Burma is a captivating portrait of how modern Burma came to be and of the ordinary people swept up in the struggle for self-determination and freedom.

Direct download: LTLA.Charmaine_Craig_Pod.Mix.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:51pm EDT

Sherry Lansing in conversation with Stephen Galloway at Live Talks Los Angeles, May 1, 2017 discussing his book, "Leading Lady: Sherry Lansing and the Making of a Hollywood Groundbreaker."

The talk took place at the Moss Theatre in Santa Monica, CA.

Sherry Lansing has worked in the motion picture business for almost 30 years where she was involved in the production, marketing, and distribution of more than 200 films, including Academy Award winners Forrest Gump (1994), Braveheart (1995), and Titanic (1997). Throughout her film career, she earned a reputation as a trailblazer, a visionary leader, and a creative filmmaker.  In 1980, she became the first woman to head a major film studio when she was appointed President of 20th Century Fox.  Later, as an independent producer, Lansing was responsible for such successful films as Fatal AttractionThe Accused, School TiesIndecent Proposal, and Black Rain.  Returning to the executive ranks in 1992, she was named Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures and began an unprecedented tenure that lasted more than 12 years (1992 – 2005), during which the studio enjoyed enormous creative and financial success.

She founded The Sherry Lansing Foundation (SLF) in 2005, a nonprofit organization dedicated to cancer research, health, public education, and encore career opportunities.  Among the SLF’s initiatives is the EnCorps STEM Teachers Program, founded by Lansing to transition corporate professionals and military veterans into top quality California public school math and science teachers.  Lansing is also a co-founder of the Stand Up To Cancer initiative, which funds collaborative, multi-institutional cancer research “Dream Teams.” 

She serves on the  University of California Board of Regents, as a trustee of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles, where she co-founded the Scholarship Fund for deserving “Littles Sisters and Brothers.”  In December 2004, Lansing was appointed to the Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.  

Lansing additionally serves on the boards of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the Broad Center for the Management of School Systems, the Carter Center, the Entertainment Industry Foundation, the W.M. Keck Foundation, the Lasker Foundation, and the Pacific Council on International Policy.  She also serves on the Executive Committee of Friends of Cancer Research and is Honorary Chair of STOP CANCER, a nonprofit philanthropic organization which she founded in partnership with the late Dr. Armand Hammer.  

Lansing graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree from Northwestern University in 1966.  

Stephen Galloway is an Emmy Award-winning journalist who serves as the executive features editor for The Hollywood Reporter. Among his honors, he was named 2013 journalist of the year at the National Entertainment Journalism Awards.

He has interviewed a who’s who of Hollywood including Steven Spielberg, Denzel Washington, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and George Clooney. He also created the Reporter’s acclaimed roundtable series, featuring the likes of Clint Eastwood, Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman.

In 2014, he was named the Cosgrove Visiting Artist at Loyola Marymount University, where he continues to host the interview series The Hollywood Masters. Born in the United Kingdom, he holds an M.A. from Cambridge University and is a graduate of the American Film Institute’s Center for Advanced Film and Television Studies.

Direct download: LTLA.Sherry_Lansing_Pod.Mix.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:26pm EDT

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in conversation with Bill Walton at Live Talks Los Angeles, May 24, 2017, discussing his book, "Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court."
 
The talk took place at the Moss Theatre in Santa Monica, CA.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 50 years of friendship with Coach John Wooden — brought together by the game of basketball — formed one of the most enduring and meaningful relationships in sports history.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and a Basketball Hall of Fame inductee. Since retiring, he has been an actor, a basketball coach, and the author of several New York Times bestsellers. Abdul-Jabbar is also a columnist for Time magazine, writing on a wide range of subjects including race, politics, age, and pop culture, and his essays and columns have also appeared in the Washington Post, in the Los Angeles Times and on Esquire.com, among other publications. In 2012, he was selected as a U.S. Cultural Ambassador and in 2016 Abdul-Jabbar was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award which recognizes exceptional meritorious service. 

In 1965, 18-year old Lew Alcindor, who would later change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, left New York City to play basketball for Coach John Wooden at UCLA. It was the beginning of what was to become a 50-year long relationship that ended with Kareem sitting at his 99-year old coach’s bedside on a June evening in 2010, holding his hand, just before he died. This is the story of their enduring friendship, both on and off the court. 

On the court, Abdul-Jabbar led UCLA to three national champions, and was named the Outstanding Player in the NCAA for each of those years-a feat that has yet to be matched in college basketball. Wooden coached UCLA for 27 seasons and won more NCAA championships than any other coach in history. 

Off the court, they transcended their athletic achievements to gain even wider recognition and tremendous national respect. They came together at the height of the civil rights era, and Coach Wooden made sure that every player on his team got the same opportunity and was treated equally. Even when Kareem controversially adopted the Muslim faith, and changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wooden was there to support him. 

Abdul-Jabbar will intimately reveal the lessons Coach Wooden taught from putting your socks on right, to the philosophies in his famous “Pyramid of Success”, and how they shaped his life, and more generally take you back to the basics of what a coach should be. 

Part memoir, and part inspirational, Coach Wooden and Me is filled with untold stories about the famous pair; private correspondence; exclusive interviews with other teammates and coaches, friends, and even family, on Coach Wooden’s impact; and much more. 

Bill Walton was NCAA player of the year at UCLA from 1972 to 1974, when UCLA set an NCAA record eighty-eight consecutive-game winning streak. A former NBA Champion and MVP, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame and selected as one of the NBA’s Fifty Greatest Players ever. He has also had a successful award-winning broadcasting career with ABC, ESPN, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, Turner, and Fox, among others. He currently resides in his hometown of San Diego with his family. Visit his website.

Direct download: LTLA.Kareem_Abdul-Jabbar_Pod.Mix.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:19pm EDT

Jack Kornfield in conversation with Dan Siegel at Live Talks Los Angeles, June 6, 2017, discussing his upcoming book, "No Time Like the Present: Finding Freedom, Love, and Joy Right Where You Are."

The talk took place at the Moss Theatre in Santa Monica, CA.

Jack Kornfield, PhD, is one of the best known, most respected meditation teachers in the world. A psychologist and founder of two of the largest Buddhist Centers and communities in America, he is one of the key teachers who introduced mindfulness to the West. His books are classics, selling well over a million copies, translated into twenty-one languages. Jack has taught at major universities and medical schools including Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, and Berkeley, teaches weekly classes to 400 at Spirit Rock, and to large crowds nationwide at retreats, conferences, and events. To learn more, please visit his website or the Spirit Rock website. 

“One of the great spiritual teachers of our time.”
— Alice Walker

“Jack Kornfield is a wonderful storyteller and a great teacher.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh, author of Creating Peace

“A consommé of goodness, heart, laughter, tears, and breath, nourishing and delicious. Rich in hope and deep wisdom for these revved up, rattling times.”
— Anne Lamott author of Grace (Eventually)

“With its incomparable blend of deep wisdom, evocative stories, and powerful meditations, No Time Like the Present is the fruit of a lifetime of spiritual teaching.  Jack Kornfield’s message is we don’t have to wait. Love, peace, freedom… it’s all available right here, in this very heart.”
— Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

Internationally beloved teacher of meditation and mindfulness, Jack Kornfield, reveals that you can be happy now, this minute, with the keys to inner freedom.

In his first major book in several years, the inspiring author of the classic A Path with Heart, Kornfield, invites us into a new awareness. Through his signature warmhearted, poignant, often funny stories, with their Aha moments and O. Henry-like outcomes, Jack shows how we get stuck and how we can free ourselves, wherever we are and whatever our circumstances. Renowned for his mindfulness practices and meditations, Jack provides these keys for opening gateways to immediate shifts in perspective and clarity of vision, allowing us to see how to change course, take action, or—when we shouldn’t act—just relax and trust.

Each chapter presents a path to a different kind of freedom—freedom from fear, freedom to start over, to love, to be yourself, and to be happy—and guides you into an active process that engages your mind, heart, and spirit, awakens your spirit, and brings real joy, over and over again. Drawing from his own life as a son, brother, father, and partner, and on his forty years of face-to-face teaching of thousands of people across the country, Jack presents a stirring call to be here, in the power of the now, the present, as we work through life’s passages. His keys to life will help us find hope, clarity, relief from past disappointments and guilt, and the courage to go forward.

Dr. Daniel J. Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, where he also helped to establish the Mindful Awareness Research Center.  He also heads up the Mindsight Institute, an educational center devoted to promoting insight, compassion, and empathy in individuals, families, institutions, and communities. Dr. Siegel’s books include three New York Times bestsellers: Brainstorm, and, with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D, The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline. As a lecturer, he’s spoken before King of Thailand, Pope John Paul II, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, at Google University, and TEDx.  He recently appeared at Live Talks Los Angeles for his book, Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human. Watch the video.

Direct download: LTLA.Jack_Kornfield_Pod.mix.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:14pm EDT

Ben Falcone in conversation with Melissa McCarthy at Live Talks Los Angeles, May 21, 2017, discussing his memoir, "Being a Dad Is Weird: Lessons in Fatherhood from My Family to Yours".
 
The talk took place at the Moss Theatre in Santa Monica, CA
 
Ben Falcone is a film director, writer, and comedic actor. He made his directorial debut in 2014 with Warner Bros.’ feature film Tammy, which he also wrote and starred in alongside real-life wife Melissa McCarthy. Falcone’s upcoming projects include the feature film Life of the Party (New Line) which he co-wrote with McCarthy and will direct. The Boss is Falcone’s recently released directorial effort which he also wrote and produced with McCarthy, who starred in the film. Falcone was last seen in Fox Searchlight Pictures’ feature film Enough Said alongside James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus for Director Nicole Holofcener, and in Jason Bateman’s directorial debutBad Words. Falcone also recently guest starred on FOX’s comedy hit New Girl and in NBC’s A to Z.Currently, he can be seen as a regular on the television series Nobodies(TV Land) which he executive produces.
 
Falcone’s additional feature film credits include The Heat, Identity Thief, Spy, What to Expect When You’re Expecting and Bridesmaids. 
 
Melissa McCarthy received an Academy Award nomination for her role as Megan in the hit comedy Bridesmaids, directed by Paul Feig and produced by Judd Apatow. She also received BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, and SAG Award nominations for this role and won the MTV Movie Award for Comedic Performance of the Year. 
 
McCarthy recently starred in The Boss which she co-wrote. In 2015 McCarthy starred in the hit film Spy for which she received a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Comedic Movie Actress, as well as a Golden Globe Award nomination, and Critics’ Choice Award nomination. In 2014 McCarthy starred in St. Vincentopposite Bill Murray and in Tammy which she co-wrote with her actor/writer husband Ben Falcone. McCarthy’s previous film credits include The Heat, Identity Thief, This is 40, The Hangover Part III and Ghostbusters. She will next star in Life of the Party which she co-wrote with Ben Falcone and wrapped production on the Fox Searchlight film Can You Ever Forgive Me?
 
McCarthy’s additional feature film work includes The Back-Up Plan, Life As We Know It, Pretty Ugly People, Just Add Water, The Nines, White Oleander, Pumpkin,and Go.Additionally, she starred in John August’s short film God, as a young woman having a gossipy phone conversation and short-lived spat with the Almighty, and also appeared in The Life of David Gale, starring Kevin Spacey.
 
On television, McCarthy starred as the clumsy culinary genius Sookie St. James in Gilmore Girls and Dena in the series Samantha Who? McCarthy won an Emmy Award and People’s Choice Award for starring as Molly on the hit CBS comedy Mike & Molly and has directed several episodes. She has also received Emmy nominations for guest hosting Saturday Night Live, which she has hosted multiple times. McCarthy recently returned to Stars Hollow for the Netflix reintroduction of Gilmore Girls. Currently, she can be seen making guest appearances on the television series Nobodies (TV Land) which she executive produces along with husband Ben Falcone.
 
Being a Dad Is Weird: Lessons in Fatherhood from My Family to Yours is a funny and intimate look at fatherhood that combines stories about his own larger-than-life dad and how his experiences raising two daughters with his wife, Melissa McCarthy, are shaped by his own childhood.
 
Ben Falcone isn’t a big shot movie star director at home. There, he’s just dad. In this collection of stories, Ben shares his funny and poignant adventures as the husband of Melissa McCarthy, and the father of their two young daughters. He also shares tales from his own childhood in Southern Illinois, and life with his father—an outspoken, brilliant, but unconventional man with a big heart and a somewhat casual approach to employment.
 
Ben is just an ordinary dad who has his share of fights with other parents blocking his view with their expensive electronic devices at school performances. Navigating the complicated role of being the only male in a house full of women, he finds himself growing more and more concerned as he sounds more and more like his dad. While Steve Falcone may not have been the briefcase and gray flannel suit type, he taught Ben priceless lessons about what matters most in life. A supportive, creative, and downright funny dad, Steve made sure his sons’ lives were never dull—a sense of adventure that carries through this warm, sometimes hilarious, and poignant memoir.
Direct download: LTLA.Ben_Falcon_Pod.Mix.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:11pm EDT

Sen. Al Franken in conversation with Chelsea Handler at Live Talks Los Angeles, July 8, 2017, discussing his memoir, "Al Franken, Giant of the Senate." For more information on Live Talks Los Angeles -- upcoming events, videos and podcast -- visit www.livetalksla.org.  The talk took place at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, CA.

Senator Al Franken has represented Minnesota in the United States Senate since 2009. He was first elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2014. 

Al Franken, Giant of the Senate, by Al Franken is the story of an award-winning comedian who decided to run for office and then discovered why award-winning comedians tend not to do that. It’s about an unlikely campaign that had an even more improbable ending: the closest outcome in history and an unprecedented eight-month recount saga, which is pretty funny in retrospect.

In this candid personal memoir, the honorable gentleman from Minnesota takes his army of loyal fans along with him from Saturday Night Live to the campaign trail, inside the halls of Congress, and behind the scenes of some of the most dramatic and/or hilarious moments of his new career in politics.

It’s a book about what happens when the nation’s foremost progressive satirist gets a chance to serve in the United States Senate and, defying the low expectations of the pundit class, actually turns out to be good at it.

It’s a book about our deeply polarized, frequently depressing, occasionally inspiring political culture, written from inside the belly of the beast.

Before entering politics, Al spent 37 years as an award-winning comedy writer, author, and radio talk show host and has taken part in seven USO tours, visiting our troops overseas in Germany, Bosnia, Kosovo, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait. He’s been married to his wife, Franni, for 41 years-many of them happy. They have two children, Thomasin and Joe, and three grandchildren. Senator Franken graduated from Harvard College.

Has Al Franken become a true Giant of the Senate? Franken asks readers to decide for themselves. Visit his Senate website.  More about Al Franken on his website.

Chelsea Handler is host of “Chelsea” on a Netflix, a global on-demand talk show with segments from around the world that tapes in front of a live audience in Los Angeles. It features conversations with celebrities, dignitaries, and surprise guests on topics like international cultures, alternative lifestyles, education, health, sports, parenting, politics, and more.   Prior to that she hosted E!’s top rated “Chelsea Lately” for eight years.
 
Handler’s five best-selling books include My Horizontal LifeAre You There, Vodka? It’s Me, ChelseaChelsea Chelsea Bang BangLies That Chelsea Handler Told Me, and 2014’s Uganda Be Killing Me, her fourth nonfiction title to debut at No. 1 on The New York Times best-seller list.

 

Direct download: LTLA.Al_Franken_Pod.mix.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:06pm EDT

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