City Arts & Lectures

Author and cultural critic Jeff Chang's new book is “Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America”.  The world’s most celebrated martial artist and one of the best-known action stars ever, Bruce Lee is a global icon.  Born in San Francisco in 1940, Lee spent his childhood in war-ravaged Hong Kong, where he began his acting career in its emerging film industry.  When he returned to the US at the age of 18, Lee studied philosophy and drama, and taught martial arts to major Hollywood actors before becoming a star himself.  On September 25, 2025, Jeff Chang talked to journalist, podcaster, and educator Shereen Marisol Meraji about his biography of Bruce Lee and his role in Asian American culture. 

This week, the story behind one of the country’s premier dining destinations, Russ & Daughters.  What began as a pushcart in 1904 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side is now an internationally-renowned retail operation, with three shops, a restaurant, and a mail-order business that delivers traditional Jewish foods nationwide.  Russ & Daughters’ specialty is “appetizing” – smoked and cured salmon, pickled herring, bagels, cream cheese, and more.  Running the business today are Josh Russ Tupper and Niki Russ Federman, fourth-generation torchbearers of their family’s legacy.  On September 5, 2025, they visited the KQED studios in San Francisco to talk to writer Rebecca Handler, about growing up in the family business and what it takes to keep it alive, and their new cookbook “Russ & Daughters, 100 Years of Appetizing”. 

Arundhati Roy’s internationally best-selling novels include The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.  Her nonfiction works engage elegantly and passionately with class and power, among other issues.  Roy’s new memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me, examines her childhood in Kerala, India, and a mother whose commitment to justice and education made her a powerful force in the community – but whose volatility made for a challenging family life that included emotional abuse. 

On September 19, 2025, Arundhati Roy came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to read from her memoir and hold an on-stage conversation with journalist Deepa Fernandes. 

Our guest today is Bill McKibben, an activist and author at the forefront of the movement to address the climate crisis, even as far back as 1989, in his book “The End of Nature.” A legendary leader in the environmental movement, he’s the founder of 350.org, the first global climate change campaign, and Third Act, a group that mobilizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. 

On September 15, 2025, McKibben came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk to journalist and author Lauren Markham, about his new book, Here Comes the Sun. In it, McKibben offers solar solutions to some of the biggest impacts of climate change. 

Our guest today is Samin Nosrat, chef, cookbook author, and television host. Along with her immense technical know-how, Nosrat is known for her nurturing and humorous approach to making food. Her first book, Salt Fat Acid Heat, is a guide to the basic principles of cooking, later adapted into a Netflix series. Her new book is Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love.

On September 13, 2025, Nosrat came to the Sydney 
Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk to Hrishikesh Hirway, creator of the Song Exploder podcast, and the co-host of Home Cooking, a podcast he and Nosrat began during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and continue today.

Our guest today is Mary Roach, a science writer who’s often drawn to taboo, or simply squeamish subjects, like sex, cadavers, or the digestive process. In books like Stiff, Bonk, Gulp, and Packing For Mars, Roach teaches her readers about the human body as well as basic – and not so basic – scientific concepts. It’s science through storytelling – and humor. On July 28, 2025. Roach came to KQED’s studios in San Francisco to talk about her new book, Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy, with journalist Alexis Madrigal, the co-host of KQED’s Forum.

We’re going back into the archives for a conversation with theoretical physicist Brian Greene, recorded in 2017. Greene is widely recognized for his groundbreaking discoveries in the field of super string theory, and he’s a rarity in the scientific world – famous outside of academia, thanks to his ability to make some of physics’ most complex concepts — including Quantum Mechanics and supersymmetry — understandable to non-scientists. His best-selling books include “The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos” and “The Elegant Universe.”  On February 23, 2017, Greene came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater to talk to Alexis Madrigal, a journalist and author who’s now co-host of KQED’s Forum. 

This week…. An encore of our 2019 program with Jeff Tweedy, founding member of the band Wilco, in conversation with writer George Saunders. 

It’s been over thirty years since Wilco formed. The seminal alt-country band still performs together while Tweedy contributes to other projects too, recording solo albums and behind the scenes as a producer and songwriter for the iconic soul and gospel singer Mavis Staples. He’s also the author of several books, including the memoir Let’s Go, So We Can Get Back.

On January 11, 2019, Tweedy came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk with the writer George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo. 

This is an encore presentation of a 2022 broadcast.  Patti Smith is a writer, performer, and visual artist who gained recognition in the 1970s for her revolutionary merging of poetry and rock. She has released numerous albums and books including her seminal record Horses, hailed as one of the top 100 albums of all time; Just Kids, a beautifully crafted love letter to her lifelong friend, the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe; and M Train, a collection of essays about memory, loss, and the simple pleasures of everyday life. Her new book, A Book of Days, is an intimate view into Smith’s life, particularly as it played out during the pandemic, and it features over 365 of her own photographs. The brilliantly idiosyncratic visual book features a year’s worth of images and reflections that chart Smith’s singular aesthetic—inspired by her wildly popular Instagram. Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.  On November 28, 2022, Patti Smith came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco for an on-stage conversation with novelist Michael Chabon.

This week…. An encore of our 2016 conversation with legendary musician Paul Simon. 
 
Paul Simon first gained prominence in the 1960s as one-half of duo Simon and Garfunkel. Their hits included The Sound of Silence, Mrs. Robinson, and songs from their fifth and final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water. Simon expanded his music beyond traditional American folk rock in a highly successful solo career that included platinum selling albums like Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints. He was twice inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

On June 6, 2016, Simon came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk to writer Dave Eggers about his painstaking process, in which he has sometimes taken more than two years to finish a single song -  and about the physics of sound. 

At the time this program was recorded, Simon was touring and had just performed two concerts at Berkeley’s Greek Theater.  In 2018, he announced he was retiring from public performance, in part because of hearing issues. but in 2025, at the age of 83, he returned to the stage with “A Quiet Celebration Tour”.