Join writers Elissa Strauss, Yael Goldstein-Love, Deena Aranoff and Lauren Schiller as they examine the power and depth of Jewish motherhood, rejecting old misogynistic stereotypes and elevating mothers to a place of respect and profound curiosity they have long deserved. They’ll discuss the worrying, the kvelling, the feeding, and those encounters with the divine that happen when caring for children. Wine reception and book signing to follow. 

FREE: Details and registration here.

Caroline will be joined in conversation by Lauren Schiller. The discussion will be followed by a Q&A and book signing.

Caroline Paul has written many books, including the New York Times bestseller The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure. She graduated from Stanford University, after which she became a San Francisco firefighter. Part of the San Francisco Writers Grotto, she writes, flies experimental gyrocopters, surfs, and reads as many books as possible.

Lauren Schiller is an award-winning audio producer, live event moderator, and co-author of It’s a Good Day to Change the World: Inspiration and Advice for a Feminist Future. She has created numerous podcasts and radio shows—including the nationally syndicated Inflection Point, about how women build power and lead change.

📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI
🚪 Doors open at 5
🗣️ Discussion begins at 6
🍕 Free pizza from our sponsor, Joyride Pizza
🍷 Refreshments for donation
🆓 The event is free with an RSVP

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Guests: Designer and technologist Mindy Seu, podcaster Lauren Schiller, and activist Hadley Dynak.

We'll be exploring the frontiers of feminism today in our May Idea Makers. Mindy Seu's Cyberfeminism Index is a social and political act. It digs into the long-ignored origins of cyberfeminism and its wide-ranging legacy. Lauren Schiller and Hadley Dynak's recent book, It's a Good Day to Change the World is a guide for action featuring 30 groundbreaking activists, artists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries who are forging a path to a feminist future.

Seu will be in conversation with Oliver Haug, a journalist at Ms. Magazine and a contributing editor at Xtra Magazine. That discussion will be followed by Schiller and Dynak in conversation with Ally Markovich, a reporter on Berkeleyside.

Idea Makers is Berkeleyside's quarterly celebration of Berkeleyʼs stature in the world of ideas through unscripted, informative, and thought-provoking conversations. Doors open at 6PM and the program in the theater will start at 6:30PM. Ticket holders have access to BAMPFA's galleries the day of Idea Makers: arrive early and show your ticket at the BAMPFA admissions desk to take advantage of this special offer. Berkeleyside thanks Red Oak Realty and Kaiser Permanente for their generous sponsorship support of Idea Makers.

Both BAMPFA and Berkeleyside members have access to special member-priced tickets.

More about our guests:

Mindy Seu is a designer and technologist based in New York City, currently teaching as an Assistant Professor at Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts and Critic at Yale School of Art. Her expanded practice involves archival projects, techno-critical writing, performative lectures, and design commissions. Mindy’s ongoing Cyberfeminism Index, which gathers three decades of online activism and net art, was commissioned by Rhizome and presented at the New Museum in its online form, and its print form is a recipient of a Graham Foundation Grant..

Lauren Schiller is an award-winning interviewer and the creator of numerous podcasts and radio shows including Inflection Point, about how women rise up, build power, and lead change. Before Inflection Point, Lauren co-created, produced and hosted one of the first women-led podcasts which also aired on commercial radio and Comcast TV. She was Executive Producer of Audio for Salon Media and has been a guest host for The Conversation on the BBC World Service. She also moderates live events, including for City Arts & Lectures, The Commonwealth Club, Cal Performances, and JCCSF. She lives in Berkeley.

Hadley Dynak is an activist, storyteller, and creative producer who helps causes and groups express why their work matters, join up with one another, and raise funds for impact. She’s worked with dozens of organizations across the country including Code for America, Hirsch Philanthropy Partners, the International Museum of Women, and the Park City Summit County Arts Council. Through her creative consultancy, PEAK86, she collaborates with artists to bring big ideas into the world, inspire conversation, and drive action. She and her husband also own Western Hills Garden, a landmark public garden in Occidental, California where they work to preserve its unique, biodiverse ecosystem and provide opportunities to connect people, plants, and place. She lives in Berkeley.

Photos: Mindy Seu portrait by Alexa Viscius; Lauren Schiller and Hadley Dynak portrait by Jen Werner.

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“In this paradigm-shifting cultural history, Pollan challenges our ossified taboos about psychoactive plants, charting our powerful attraction to these substances—and exposing the arbitrariness of our self-imposed restrictions….From the war on drugs to cultural appropriation of mind-altering substances like ayahuasca, Pollan deftly explores the links between set and setting.”— Esquire

For more than thirty years, Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in our minds. His many acclaimed titles include How to Change Your Mind, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire. In his recent essay collection, This is Your Mind on Plants, Pollan takes a deep dive into three psychoactive plants: opium, caffeine, and mescaline. Pollan co-founded the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. The center combines research, training, and public education to explore the psychological and biological effects of psychedelics on cognition, perception and emotion.

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All tickets include a paperback copy of Michael Pollan’s recent essay collection, This is Your Mind on Plants.

Photo Credit: Tabitha Soren

LOG IN HERE AT 6PM PT, MONDAY 5/11/20.

About Eve Rodsky

Eve Rodsky received her BA from the University of Michigan and her JD from Harvard Law School. After working in foundation management at J.P. Morgan, she founded the Philanthropy Advisory Group to advise families and charitable foundations on best practices. In her work with hundreds of families over a decade, she realized that her expertise in family mediation, strategy, and organizational management could be applied to a problem closer to home—a system for couples seeking balance, efficiency, and peace in their lives. Rodsky was raised by a single mother in New York City and now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their three children. Fair Play is her first book.

An optimistic exploration of how politics and digital media interact in modern-day America

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Dan Pfeiffer combines wry wit, spot-on political instincts, and formidable storytelling chops in an optimistic exploration of how politics and digital media interact in modern-day America. The former White House communications director, noted political strategist and commentator, and Pod Save America co-host is credited with breaking new ground in harnessing the power of social media during the Obama presidential campaign and subsequent administration. He is the author of the New York Times #1 best-seller Yes We (Still) Can: Politics in the Age of Obama, Twitter and Trump—a colorful account of how politics, the media, and the internet changed during the Obama presidency alongside the evolution of social media. Far from a jaded insider, Pfeiffer infuses his talks with optimism for America’s political system, and stresses the value and impact of civic engagement.

Cal Performances’ Speaker Series is a season-long series of presentations by some of the leading creative and intellectual voices of our time—thinkers, activists, strategists, satirists, journalists, and pioneers at the leading edge of culture and politics.

KALW is the exclusive radio partner for the 2019–20 Speaker Series.

Presented by Arts & Ideas at the JCCSF in San Francisco

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Women and aging: as subjects go, it’s a combination akin to oil and water – or maybe oil and a lit match. Join celebrated New York Times columnist Gail Collins as she explores how attitudes toward older women have shifted in America over the centuries – from the Plymouth Colony view that women were marriageable if "civil and under fifty years of age," to quiet dismissal of post-reproductive females, to woman’s role as perpetual caretaker (even when she might need caretaking herself), to the first female nominee for president. Hear why women can, and should, expect the best of their golden years.

Since 1995, Gail Collins has contributed political commentary with keen insights and considerable wit to the Op-Ed page of the New York Times. From 2001 to 2007 she was editorial page editor of the paper, the first woman to have held that position. Her books include America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines; Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity and American Politics; When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present; and As Texas Goes...: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda. Her latest book is No Stopping Us Now: A History of Older Women in America.

Made possible through the generous support of The Jenerosity Foundation.

Presented by The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco

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There are more women earning college degrees and participating in the workforce than ever before. Even still, women spend far more time on unpaid labor than men. Eve Rodsky, author of the new book Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live), seeks to address this universal imbalance. Rodsky began her journey to address this inequality after reaching a tipping point in her own marriage. After recording all of the unrecognized work she was doing for her busy household, she realized the disparity between her and her partner was striking. 

Fair Play offers four simple and practical steps to redistribute invisible work, reignite your relationship and reclaim your own time. Join Eve Rodsky and INFORUM on the quest for domestic rebalance. 

All ticket sales are final and nonrefundable.

Presented by INFORUM at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco

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The landscape of sex, love and romance in New York City has undergone dramatic changes in the 20 years since Candace Bushnell published the iconic Sex and the City, which broke down major barriers in cultural representations of single women and reshaped the landscape of pop culture. Now the trailblazing Bushnell is back to ask the vital question: Is there still sex in the city for women 50+?

Join Bushnell at INFORUM as she, once again, guides us through a new and entangled dating scene. Her newest book, Is There Still Sex in the City?, follows a whole new cohort of female friends: Sassy, Kitty, Queenie, Tilda Tia, Marilyn and Candace, as they face the modern-day sex arena as middle-aged women, including younger partners, dating apps, divorce, children and the pressure to maintain a youthful appearance. Equal parts hilarious and heart wrenching, and filled with Bushnell’s signature short, sharp social commentary, Is There Still Sex in the City? not only provides a colorful look at love after 50 but also asks audiences to take a more nuanced look into the lives of women. 

Produced in partnership with Women Lit, a program of the Bay Area Book Festival.

“Jennifer Weiner has created a novel for the ages in Mrs. Everything, which is as impressive as it is ambitious… a skillfully rendered and emotionally rich family saga… an unapologetic feminist novel, fully fleshing out the pernicious effects of patriarchy… Weiner shows that big, expansive social novels are not only still possible in our fragmented society but perhaps necessary. Mrs. Everything is a great American novel, full of heart and hope.” — SHELF AWARENESS

From Jennifer Weiner, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Who Do You Love and In Her Shoes comes a smart, thoughtful, and timely exploration of two sisters’ lives from the 1950s to the present as they struggle to find their places—and be true to themselves—in a rapidly evolving world. Mrs. Everything is an ambitious, richly textured journey through history—and herstory—as these two sisters navigate a changing America over the course of their lives.

Presented by Women Lit, a program of the Bay Area Book Festival. Jennifer Weiner will be interviewed by Lauren Schiller, host of Inflection Point.

Followed by book signing

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Saturday, June 22, 7:30 p.m.
David Brower Center
2150 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA 94704

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About Mrs. Everything

Jo and Bethie Kaufman were born into a world full of promise. Growing up in 1950s Detroit, they live in a perfect “Dick and Jane” house, where their roles in the family are clearly defined. Jo is the tomboy, the bookish rebel with a passion to make the world more fair; Bethie is the pretty, feminine good girl, a would-be star who enjoys the power her beauty confers and dreams of a traditional life. (If you’ve noted that these are sisters’ names in Little Women too, you’re right on.)

As their lives unfold against the background of free love and Vietnam, Woodstock and women’s lib, Bethie dives headlong into the counterculture and is up for anything (except settling down). Meanwhile, Jo becomes a proper young mother in Connecticut, a witness to the changing world instead of a participant. Neither woman inhabits the world she dreams of, nor has a life that feels authentic or brings her joy. Is it too late for the women to finally stake a claim on happily ever after?

In her most ambitious novel yet, Jennifer Weiner tells a story of two sisters who, with their different dreams and different paths, offer answers to the question: How should a woman be in the world?

Still debating? Check out Jen on this one-minute video telling you about the book. (If you only have 5 seconds, try this.)

About the Author

Jennifer Weiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of sixteen books, including Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, and her memoir, Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing. A graduate of Princeton University and contributor to the New York Times Opinion section, Jennifer lives with her family in Philadelphia. Visit her online at JenniferWeiner.com.

Join Lauren at the Commonwealth Club for an evening with Eve Ensler.

How do you come to terms with the need for an apology that will never come? How can the trauma of a childhood in an abusive household be put into words? And how can recounting the pain of those histories become a process of healing and personal reconciliation? These are the questions that Eve Ensler grapples with in her newest book, The Apology. It is a raw reckoning with a traumatic and unresolved past which has played an important role in Ensler’s artistic and political activist careers, and it shows other survivors of abuse how they may finally envision their own freedom from the past.

Ensler’s theatrical career took off when she wrote “The Vagina Monologues,” a work of such originality and power that it ran for over 10 years and has been translated into 140 languages. The performances inspired the creation of V-Day, a global platform to share the stories of survivors and for groups to raise money for the cause through their own yearly performances of “The Vagina Monologues.” Ensler has received numerous awards, including the Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship in playwriting, an Obie and Glamour’s Woman of the Year. 

Come join us for a discussion with a woman renowned for her artistic work and political impact on a topic for which words do not come easily but need to be heard.

This program is part of the Commonwealth Club Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

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5:30 p.m. check-in
6:30 p.m. program
7:30 p.m. book signing

What is Gloria Steinem thinking about today in our era of #MeToo and intersectionality? How can today’s feminists learn from our foremothers, and vice versa? We’ll celebrate an updated, third edition of Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, originally published in 1983 — a book that has sold over half a million copies, and counting. As author Susan Faludi (Backlash) put it, Outrageous Acts“ will always be… a required feminist reader.” From satires to moving tributes, confessions (yes, the Playboy bunny essay is in here) and analyses, the book includes classics along with new material.

Lauren Schiller, host of Inflection Point from KALW will lead the conversation with Gloria Steinem and artist and activist Favianna Rodriguez of CultureStrike. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from an ever-relevant icon in a smart, sassy conversation that will provoke and inspire you. This event is produced by Women Lit/Bay Area Book Festival in collaboration with Inflection Point.

This event is SOLD OUT.

Sponsored in part by:

Join us for the next event in our Women Lit series!

Courage, Honor, and Hope: An Evening with Khalida Brohi in conversation with Inflection Point’s Lauren Schiller.

Thursday, December 13 at The Women’s Building in San Francisco.
7:00 p.m. program followed by book signing.

General Admission: $15 advance, $20 at the door
Student Price: $10 advance/at the door; show student ID at the door

You are invited to hear from one of the most powerful young voices in international activism. At age 16, Brohi became an activist after her cousin was murdered by her uncle in an honor killing. From a tiny cement-roofed single room home in Karachi where she was allowed ten minutes of computer use per day, she created a Facebook campaign that went viral. She has embarked on a global quest to speak up for women and speak out against cultural practices that keep women down. Already one of Newsweek magazine’s “25 under 25 Women of Impact” and Forbes’ “30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs,” her book is “I Should Have Honor. A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan.” And she’s just getting started.

This is the second event in Women Lit, a new literary event series presenting female authors on lightning-hot topics for women and men today. It’s presented by the Bay Area Book Festival’s Women Lit society and KALW’s Inflection Point, the podcast and broadcast about how women rise up. Go to womenlit.org for a full schedule. KALW is a proud media sponsor of Women Lit.

Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger

Rebecca Traister in conversation with Inflection Point’s Lauren Schiller

Anger is power. Come join Lauren, Women Lit/Bay Area Book Festival, and your fellow agitators and thinkers for an evening with one of the most compelling voices for women today. With her latest book, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger, Rebecca Traister tracks the history of female anger as political and personal dynamite. Inform your rage! This evening could not be more timely.

Wednesday, October 10th, 7pm at the Berkeley City Club

Sponsored by KALW, Hello!Lucky and EO Products.