Monday January 6, 2020
Manhattan
7-8pm $15: Daniel Levitin: Successful Aging. Author of the iconic bestsellers This Is Your Brain on Music and The Organized Mind, Daniel Levitin turns his keen insights to what happens in our brains as we age, why we should think about health span, not life span, and, based on a rigorous analysis of neuroscientific evidence, what you can do to make the most of your seventies, eighties, and nineties today no matter how old you are now. Join us in the Rare Book room at The Strand for the release of Levitin’s new book, Successful Aging. More info. [BOOKS]
Tuesday January 7, 2020
Manhattan
6-8pm Free: Book Launch: “How to Live a Good Life: A Guide to Choosing Your Personal Philosophy.” Join us for the launch of How to Live a Good Life with editors Skye Cleary, Massimo Pigliucci, and Daniel Kaufman, along with contributor and Ethical NYC Leader Emerita Anne Klaeysen. This thought-provoking, wide-ranging collection brings together essays by fifteen leading philosophers reflecting on what it means to live according to a philosophy of life. More info. [PHILOSOPHY]
7pm $29: Tiny Habits: Small Changes to Transform Your Life. What creates habit change in the real world? At last, you can learn what really works. Stanford behavior scientist BJ Fogg is joined by his former student Ramit Sethi for a special evening at the 92Y all about human behavior. A book signing follows the event. More info. [CULTURE]
7:15-9pm Free: A 2020 Approach to Weight Loss. Come to this exciting seminar by Complete Wellness NYC to learn about how functional medicine gets to the root of the problem. If you’re sick of just putting band-aids on big problems and are looking for a completely different approach to medicine – this is it! Discover how the Complete Wellness NYC team uses a holistic approach to effectively and naturally address the real cause of stubborn weight gain, hormone imbalances and other indicators of dysfunction in the body. More info. [SCIENCE]
7:30pm $37: Jamie Oliver in Conversation with Carla Hall: Ultimate Veg. Superstar chef and fresh food champion Jamie Oliver doesn’t just want you to eat your veggies, he wants you to embrace them. He brings his signature effervescence and passion for pure, unprocessed, flavor-packed food as he joins the 92Y to talk with Carla Hall about his new book, Ultimate Veg. A book signing follows the event with Jamie Oliver for Ultimate Veg and Carla Hall for Soul Food. More info. [BOOKS]
Wednesday January 8, 2020
Manhattan
4:15-6:15pm Free: Escher and the Droste Effect. In this lecture at the Simons Foundation, Hendrik W. Lenstra will discuss interactions between mathematics and M.C. Escher’s artwork. A mathematical analysis of the methods used by Escher leads to a series of hallucinating computer animations that show, among others, what’s in the blurry blank hole in the middle of Escher’s famous “Prentententoonstelling” (or, “Print Gallery”) artwork. More info. [SCIENCE]
6-7:30pm Free: PERSON PLACE THING: Randy Cohen in conversation with Budd Heyman, MD. Join us for a live taping of Randy Cohen’s podcast PERSON PLACE THING with Budd Heyman, MD, medical director of Prison Health Services at Bellevue Hospital Center. More info. [GEEK]
6:30pm $15: Martha Graham’s Cold War: The Dance of American Diplomacy. In historian Victoria Phillips’s new book, Martha Graham’s Cold War: The Dance of American Diplomacy, the author uncovers how Graham and her company infiltrated the American propaganda machine, from a White House performance in 1937 to a planned tour of Eastern Europe under George H.W. Bush in 1989. Join Phillips, in conversation with legendary Martha Graham dancer Linda Hodes and moderator Valerie Paley, director of the Center for Women’s History, as they uncover Graham’s surprising place in American diplomacy. More info. [BOOKS]
7:30pm $35: Adam Davidson and Ariel Levy in Conversation: The Passion Economy. NPR’s Planet Money creator and award-winning New Yorker staff writer Adam Davidson stops by the 92Y to reassure us that the middle class isn’t dying and robots are not stealing our jobs. He explains how our feelings of dislocation, confusion, even panic result from a lack of understanding, and he counters them with clarity and insights from his new book The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century. More info. [ECONOMICS]
8-9pm $10: The Iconic Flatiron Building. Journalist Alice Sparberg Alexiou, author of The Flatiron: The New York Landmark and the Extraordinary City That Arose With It, will talk about what this iconic structure means to the city, the world, and to her. More info. [BOOKS]
Thursday January 9, 2020
Manhattan
6-8pm Free: A Conversation With Amy Fine Collins & Simon Doonan. Join us for a riveting talk on the history of red-carpet fashion, how the international best-dressed list came to be and what makes an iconic look as journalist and author Amy Fine Collins shares exclusive insights from her new book, The International Best-Dressed List (published by Rizzoli), with author and judge on NBC’s ‘Making It’ Simon Doonan. More info. [BOOKS]
7:30-8:30pm $15: William Rosenau: Tonight We Bombed the U.S. Capitol. Tonight We Bombed the US Capitol tells the full story of M19 for the first time, alongside original photos and declassified FBI documents. Through the group’s history, intelligence and counterterrorism expert William Rosenau helps us understand how homegrown extremism—a threat that still looms over us today—is born. Join us on the Rare Book Room at the Strand bookstore as William shares his book with John Jay College professor Jeffrey A. Kroessler. More info. [BOOKS]
Brooklyn
7-8pm Free: Ada Calhoun Presents: Why We Can’t Sleep. In Why We Can’t Sleep, Ada Calhoun opens up the cultural and political contexts of Gen X’s predicament and offers solutions for how to pull oneself out of the abyss—and keep the next generation of women from falling in. The result is reassuring, empowering, and essential reading for all middle-aged women, and anyone who hopes to understand them. Join Ada Calhoun and authors Susannah Cahalan and Karen Abbott at Books Are Magic for a discussion on Why We Can’t Sleep. More info. [BOOKS]
Friday January 10, 2020
Manhattan
12:30pm Free: Lunchtime Lecture: Clock-making in Early America. The Curator of the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum’s current exhibit, “Revolutionary Revolutions: Clocks and Industry in Early America,” will speak about the widespread success of American-made shelf clocks in the 19th-century and the interrelated forces of technological convenience, comfort, taste, and affordability that drive the consumer habits of a middle class, then and now. Bring your lunch. Tea, conversation, exhibit, and optional Museum tour included. More info. [HISTORY]
7pm $20: Jeanne Proust Discusses Time at the Strand Bookstore. Join professor Jeanne Proust at the Rare Book room at the Strand for this Olio event which discusses the concept of ‘Time’ through a philosophical lens. More info. [PHILOSOPHY]
7pm $29: How to Explore the World with Curiosity and Mindfulness. Daniel Houghton, former CEO of renowned travel guide publisher Lonely Planet, and Seth Kugel, former New York Times “Frugal Traveler” columnist, will talk about how to travel right in the 21st century—how to explore the world with curiosity and sustainably-minded care. More info. [MINDFULNESS]
8:30pm $15: Vince Ebert: Sexy Science. Vince Ebert, physicist and comedian, is a big hit in his native Germany. After his 2018 sold out debut at the Edinburgh Fringe he’s on the road to export his unique sense of German humor to NYC. Why is the sky blue? Why is the night black? Why shouldn’t we eat yellow snow? “Sexy Science” – a witty and inspiring performance about skeptical thinking, fake news, the secret of German cars and the important question: Do strippers in the southern hemisphere turn around the pole in the opposite direction? More info. [GEEK]
Saturday January 11, 2020
Manhattan
11am-1pm $30: Tour: Exploring Lower Manhattan. Wherever possible, guide Joe Svehlak will keep us off the streets as we learn about the continuing struggle to keep Downtown Manhattan connected to its multi-layered history during this time of much redevelopment. More info. [TOUR]
Sunday January 12, 2020
Manhattan
2-5pm $10: Simultaneous Chess Exhibition with Grandmaster Gennady Sagalchik. After a sold-out simultaneous exhibition last year, Gennady Sagalchik returns to the JCC to give new aspirants a chance to play a game against a Grandmaster chess champion. $25 to play, first come first serve / $10 to watch. More info. [GEEK]
Queens
3-6pm $15: The Politics of Preservation. MoMA PS1 presents an afternoon of programming that examines the destruction of Iraqi heritage by the allied forces during the Gulf wars. Medical anthropologist Omar Dewachi, whose research focuses on the intersection of global health, the history of medicine, and political anthropology, leads the discussion. He is joined by Zahra Ali, Zainab Bahrani, David Harvey, and Zainab Saleh. Following the presentations, participants will come together in a conversation moderated by Ali. The discussion is followed by a concert from renowned Iraqi maqam vocalist Hamid Al-Saadi performing with the celebrated ensemble Safaafir featuring Amir ElSaffar. More info. [CULTURE]