In a time when truth is ever more embattled, one of its greatest creative and intellectual practitioners releases his new book at the festival.

Ehrenreich has taken on the minimum wage, abortion rights, women's lives, marijuana laws, and now, in her new book, death itself. She examines diet culture, disease screenings and all of the other practices humans engage in to ensure a long life. Sponsored by Mother Jones.

These titans of storytelling discuss the power stories have to galvanize the world, create cultures and bind us all together. Sponsored by UC Berkeley Arts + Design and the Simpson Family Literary Project.

World-renowned Buddhist teacher Frank Ostaseski discusses the tenets of a life well lived and share simple suggestions everyone can practice. Sponsored by North Berkeley Investment Partners.

These esteemed reviewers take us inside the process: Lydia Kiesling, editor of The Millions; Paul Laity, non-fiction reviewer at The Guardian; Ismail Muhammad, reviewer for The Millions and contributor to Slate and the Paris Review; and Jane Ciabattari, BBC reviewer and former president of the National Book Critics Circle.

Memoir writers have the especially challenging task of confronting their own past and creating themselves as a character. In their memoirs, these writers address the U.S. Border Patrol, the experience of Holocaust survivors and growing up mixed-race in America.

Come hear how writers dream up, and then capture on the page, entirely new people who are exceptionally complicated. With the support of the Norway House Foundation, NORLA - Norwegian Literature Abroad, the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, and the Consulate General of Sweden in San Francisco.

One of the Bay Area's most famous activists talks with a movement insider on the history and future of activism. How have past movements used disruptive tactics to catalyze change? Is there hope in the dark, and how do we act on it? Sponsored by UC Berkeley Arts + Design.

This smart, compassionate woman — who arrived in this country as a near-penniless immigrant student and became one of the founding board members of Salesforce — gives other smart women the tools they need to win. Sponsored by Strong Legacy Planning.

As women across the world make their painful experiences visible, men have begun to grapple with how the masculine identity shapes the power imbalance.