|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Luncheon Society
 As always, the new season of The Luncheon Society began with former Governor Michael Dukakis, for a conversation about Barack Obama, the Republican field of challengers and the 2012 election for lunches in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. Dukakis spent a considerable amount of time talking about the possibility of Elizabeth Warren, who is running a grassroots campaign for the US Senate. Unlike other people who have sat down at the Dukakis house over the years, Warren is listening to Dukakis and she might beat Scott Brown.
 Joining us in San Francisco and Manhattan for a conversation was the Father of Cognitive Neuroscience, Dr. Michael Gazzaniga joined us in San Francisco as well as New York, the father of cognitive neuroscience and author of Human offers a provocative argument against the common belief that our lives are wholly determined by physical processes and we are therefore not responsible for our actions. A powerful orthodoxy in the study of the brain has taken hold in recent years: Since physical laws govern the physical world and our own brains are part of that world, physical laws therefore govern our behavior and even our conscious selves. Free will is meaningless, goes the mantra; we live in a "determined" world. Not so, argues the renowned neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga in this thoughtful, provocative book based on his Gifford Lectures - one of the foremost lecture series in the world dealing with religion, science, and philosophy. Who's in Charge? proposes that the mind, which is somehow generated by the physical processes of the brain, "constrains" the brain just as cars are constrained by the traffic they create. Gazzaniga convincingly argues that even given the latest insights into the physical mechanisms of the mind, there is an undeniable human reality: We are responsible agents who should be held accountable for our actions, because responsibility is found in how people interact, not in brains.
 Then it was on to Los Angeles and San Francisco where had our great rock and roll group luncheon with Pamela Des Barres and Catherine James, two amazing ladies who defined the groupie culture in the late 1960's and early 1970's. The stylish, exuberant, and remarkably sweet confession of one of the most famous groupies of the 1960s and 70s is back in this new edition that includes an afterword on the author's last 15 years of adventures. As soon as she graduated from high school, Pamela Des Barres headed for the Sunset Strip, where she knocked on rock stars' backstage doors and immersed herself in the drugs, danger, and ecstasy of the freewheeling 1960s. Over the next 10 years, she had affairs with Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Keith Moon, Waylon Jennings, Chris Hillman, Noel Redding, and Jim Morrison, among others. She traveled with Led Zeppelin; lived in sin with Don Johnson; turned down a date with Elvis Presley; and was close friends with Robert Plant, Gram Parsons, Ray Davies, and Frank Zappa. As a member of the GTO's, a girl group masterminded by Frank Zappa, she was in the thick of the most revolutionary renaissance in the history of modern popular music. Warm, witty, and sexy, this kiss-and-tell-all stands out as the perfect chronicle of one of rock 'n' roll's most thrilling eras.
 From Thomas Frank, the best-selling author of "What's the Matter with Kansas?", a wonderfully insightful and sardonic look at how the worst economy since the 1930s has brought about the revival of conservatism. Economic catastrophe usually brings social protest and demands for change - or at least it's supposed to. But when Frank set out in 2009 to look for expressions of American discontent, all he could find were loud demands that the economic system be made even harsher on the recession's victims and that society's traditional winners receive even grander prizes. The American right, which had seemed moribund after the election of 2008, was strangely reinvigorated by the arrival of hard times. The Tea Party movement demanded not that we question the failed system but that we reaffirm our commitment to it. Republicans in Congress embarked on a bold strategy of total opposition to the liberal state. And TV phenom Glenn Beck demonstrated the commercial potential of heroic paranoia and the purest libertarian economics. In "Pity the Billionaire," Frank, the great chronicler of American paradox, examines the peculiar mechanism by which dire economic circumstances have delivered wildly unexpected political results. Using firsthand reporting, a deep knowledge of the American right, and a wicked sense of humor, he gives us the first full diagnosis of the cultural malady that has transformed collapse into profit, reconceived the Founding Fathers as heroes from an Ayn Rand novel, and enlisted the powerless in a fan club for the prosperous. What it portends is ominous for both our economic health and our democracy.
 Back in Manhattan, Paul Rieckhoff of the IAVA, the largest group that supports the needs of veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters, joined us for his fourth discussion with us, a great talk about what vets will face when they return to civilian life. Even though the economy has rebounded, suicides among returning vets is ant pandemic levels. Because the war has faded from the headlines, few people really see the carnage when solders have returned home. IAVA was founded in 2004 by Iraq War veteran Paul Rieckhoff to provide resources to and community for post-9/11 veterans. The organization is headquartered in New York City and maintains a policy office in Washington, DC. IAVA's mission is to unite, empower and connect post-9/11 veterans through education, advocacy, and community. Its programs include non-partisan advocacy on Capitol Hill, data-driven research on post-9/11 veteran issues, veterans transition assistance through its Rapid Response Referral Program (RRRP), and community building through its VetTogether and online community events.
 David Kennedy, joined us in New York and continued his conversation about his thoughtful new ways to drive down violent crime among our at-risk youth. Kennedy is a criminologist, professor at CCNY, action researcher, and author specializing in crime prevention among inner city gangs, especially in the prevention of violent acts among street gangs. Kennedy developed the Operation Ceasefire group violence intervention in Boston in the 1990s and the High Point Model drug market intervention in High Point, North Carolina, in 2003, which have proven to reduce violence and eliminate overt drug markets in jurisdictions around the United States. He founded the National Network for Safe Communities in 2009 to support cities using these and related strategies.
 Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Genius Fellow Taylor Branch talked about the NCAA from his book, The Cartel. In it, he describes how college athletes are getting the short end of the stick and how the NCAA will be running into trouble near term. Taylor had joined us on several occasions, and he believes that student-athletes should be paid for their activities on their field because of the value the offer to their universities. The rationale is that when these guidelines were originally created in the 1950s and 1960s, there was comparatively little money in college sports-not so today. Today, much of the NCAA's moral authority-indeed much of the justification for its existence-is vested in its claim to protect what it calls the "student-athlete." The term is meant to conjure the nobility of amateurism, and the precedence of scholarship over athletic endeavor. But the origins of the "student-athlete" lie not in a disinterested ideal but in a sophistic formulation designed, as the sports economist Andrew Zimbalist has written, to help the NCAA in its "fight against workmen's compensation insurance claims for injured football players." "We crafted the term student-athlete," Walter Byers himself wrote, "and soon it was embedded in all NCAA rules and interpretations." The term came into play in the 1950s, when the widow of Ray Dennison, who had died from a head injury received while playing football in Colorado for the Fort Lewis A&M Aggies, filed for workmen's-compensation death benefits. Did his football scholarship make the fatal collision a "work-related" accident? Was he a school employee, like his peers who worked part-time as teaching assistants and bookstore cashiers? Or was he a fluke victim of extracurricular pursuits? Given the hundreds of incapacitating injuries to college athletes each year, the answers to these questions had enormous consequences. The Colorado Supreme Court ultimately agreed with the school's contention that he was not eligible for benefits, since the college was "not in the football business." That does not pass any smell test.
 2009 TED Award Winner Dr. Jill Tarter joined us in Manhattan for a conversation about what is "out there" now that the Kepler spacecraft has discovered so many new exoplanets. There was a great science crowd around the table, with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jerry Ostriker, and others. As Kepler focuses its aim on exo-planets, earthbound scientists are getting a better handle on how to identify bio-signatures that might signal life outside of our solar system. The betting here is that contact will take place within the next two decades. Tarter is deeply involved in the education of future citizens and scientists. In addition to her scientific leadership at NASA and SETI Institute, Tarter was the Principal Investigator for two curriculum development projects funded by NSF, NASA, and others. The first, the Life in the Universe series, created 6 science teaching guides for grades 3-9 (published 1994-96). Her second project, Voyages Through Time, is an integrated high school science curriculum on the fundamental theme of evolution in six modules: Cosmic Evolution, Planetary Evolution, Origin of Life, Evolution of Life, Hominid Evolution and Evolution of Technology (published 2003). Tarter is a frequent speaker for science teacher meetings and at museums and science centers, bringing her commitment to science and education to both teachers and the public. Many people are now familiar with her work as portrayed by Jodie Foster in the movie Contact.
 Only weeks before his reputation fell to earth, Jonah Lehrer, whose book topped the NY Times Nonfiction Best-seller list, joined us in San Francisco for a conversation about his latest book, "Imagine." Jonah gave us a peek into the latest article of The New Yorker, which tried to quantify the importance of "grit" to successful endeavors. What is sad is that the book was quite good-he never had to add the fake Dylan quotes. Imagine had been a best-seller, another coup for the 31-year-old writer who was frequently asked to discuss science, creativity and the brain, including on NPR and with Stephen Colbert. So Lehrer's predicament, given his preferred topic, makes irony an understatement in this case.
 Our old friend Roz Savage OBE, is getting ready to row again-this time from the Atlantic to London, just in time to show up for the Olympics. She gave us an idea of how one prepares for another trip of a lifetime. We wish her the very best. Roz successfully paddled her way across the Atlantic in a solo in what she recalls was a harrowing adventure. After that, she was able to successfully negotiate a solo row from California to Hawaii. Roz successfully completed her Indian Ocean crossing in October 2011, becoming the first woman to solo row the "Big Three," the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. The crossing took 154 days.
 We had a return of the The Mad Bad and Dangerous to Know series with Christina Haag, Jillian Lauren and Anne-Marie O'Connor which was a blast! Christina and Jillian continued the conversation which began late last year in Manhattan and Anne-Marie was suggested to us by Ioan Grillo who joined The Luncheon Society last year for a searing talk about the rise of Mexico Narco-terrorism. When Christina Haag was growing up on Manhattan's Upper East Side, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was just one of the boys in her circle of prep school friends, a skinny kid who  lived with his mother and sister on Fifth Avenue and who happened to have a Secret Service detail following him discreetly at all times. A decade later, after they had both graduated from Brown University, Christina and John were cast in an off-Broadway play together. It was then that John confessed his long-standing crush on her, and they embarked on a five-year love affair. Glamorous and often in the public eye, but also passionate and deeply intimate, their relationship was transformative for both of them. Anne-Marie O'Connor brilliantly regales us with the galvanizing story of Gustav Klimt's 1907 masterpiece-the breathtaking portrait of a Viennese Jewish socialite, Adele Bloch-Bauer. The celebrated painting, stolen by Nazis during World War II, subsequently  became the subject of a decade-long dispute between her heirs and the Austrian government. When the U.S. Supreme Court became involved in the case, its decision had profound ramifications in the art world. Expertly researched, masterfully told, The Lady in Gold is at once a stunning depiction of fin-de siècle Vienna, a riveting tale of Nazi war crimes, and a fascinating glimpse into the high-stakes workings of the contemporary art world. At eighteen, Jillian Lauren was an NYU theater school dropout with a tip about an upcoming audition. The "casting director" told her that a rich businessman in Singapore would pay pretty American girls $20,000 if they stayed for two weeks to spice up his parties. Soon, Jillian was on a plane to Borneo, where she would spend the next eighteen months in the harem of Prince Jefri Bolkiah, youngest brother of the Sultan of Brunei, leaving behind her gritty East Village apartment for a palace with rugs laced with gold and trading her band of artist friends for a coterie of backstabbing beauties.
 Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman joined us in San Francisco for a talk on the economy, which also marked the final day of an old haunt of The Luncheon Society, Fior D'Italia, which closed its doors that evening. His book "End this Depression Now seemed to resonate with the employees at the restaurant who were losing their jobs. In 2008, Krugman was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to New Trade Theory and New Economic Geography. The New York Times bestseller: the Nobel Prize-winning economist shows how today's crisis parallels the Great Depression-and explains how to avoid catastrophe. With a new foreword for this paperback edition. In this major bestseller, Paul Krugman warns that, like diseases that have become resistant to antibiotics, the economic maladies that caused the Great Depression have made a comeback. He lays bare the 2008 financial crisis-the greatest since the 1930s-tracing it to the failure of regulation to keep pace with an out-of-control financial system. He also tells us how to contain the crisis and turn around a world economy sliding into a deep recession. Brilliantly crafted in Krugman's trademark style-lucid, lively, and supremely informed-this new edition of The Return of Depression Economics has become an instant classic. A hard-hitting new foreword takes the paperback edition right up to the present moment.
 Noted NPR Commentator and musical historian Tim Riley brought forth the best biography of John Lennon to date, which contrasted the "London Lennon" with the New York Lennon" at a Boston gathering. His first book was Tell Me Why: A Beatles Commentary (Knopf/Vintage 1988), a critique of the Beatles' music, which The New York Times said brought "new insight to the act we've known for all these years". The book established Riley as an author of rock history critiques. His subsequent projects include the music metaportal Riley Rock Index and a biography of John Lennon, which was included in Kirkus Reviews' list of the Best Nonfiction of 2011.
 David Maraniss joined us in Manhattan with a luncheon in Manhattan to discuss his stunning biography on the younger years of Barack Obama. There were more Pulitzer winners around the table than courses on the menu. David has been affiliated with the Washington Post for more than forty years as an editor and writer, and twice won Pulitzer Prizes at the newspaper. In 1993 he received the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his coverage of Bill Clinton, and in 2007 he was part of a team that won a Pulitzer for coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting. He was also a Pulitzer finalist three other times, including for one of his books, They Marched Into Sunlight. He has won many other major writing awards, including the George Polk Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Prize, the Anthony Lukas Book Prize, and the Frankfurt eBook Award.
 Actor, writer podcaster creator and raconteur extraordinaire Stephen Tobolowsky gave an astounding conversation on living life out loud as one of the country's most recognizable character actors. He will be in New York and Los Angeles near term. The funny thing about Stephen is that acting is only one of the gifts he brings to the table. Tobolowsky has a monthly audio podcast, The Tobolowsky Files, of autobiographical stories of his acting and personal life. In 2015, he co-hosted a short-lived second podcast, Big Problems - An Advice Podcast, with David Chen. He has also authored three books: The Dangerous Animals Club, Cautionary Tales, and My Adventures With God.
 Abraham Lustgarten went deep inside the corporate dysfunction within BP that would larger manifest itself the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the worst ecological disaster in the planet's history. 4.9 billion barrels of oil were dumped into the Gulf of Mexico. Lustgarten has previously worked with PBS Frontline, including on the 2010 documentary "The Spill," about how BP's corporate culture of recklessness and profiteering led to the Deepwater Horizon tragedy. His early investigation into the environmental and economic consequences of fracking led the earliest news reporting on the issue and is credited for drawing national attention to hydraulic fracturing, leading to a ban on the process in New York State, and informing the story behind the documentary film Gasland. Lustgarten's fracking investigative series received the George Polk award for environmental reporting and the National Press Foundation award for best energy writing.
 Lanny Davis and Michael Steele joined us in San Francisco and Los Angeles for a conversation about the divide between Democrats and Republicans along with their thoughts on the fall election. Both serve as anthropologists for their own political parties, with Michael on MBNBC and Lanny on Fox. Steele served as the seventh lieutenant governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007; he was the first African-American elected to statewide office in Maryland. As lieutenant governor, Steele chaired the Minority Business Enterprise task force, actively promoting an expansion of affirmative action in the corporate world. Steele also served as chairperson of the Republican National Committee (RNC) from January 2009 until January 2011; he was the first African-American to serve in that capacity. Davis is an American lawyer, consultant, lobbyist, author, and television commentator. He is the co-founder and partner of the law firm of Davis Goldberg & Galper PLLC, and co-founder and partner of the public relations firm Trident DMG. From 1996 to 1998, he served as a special counsel to President Bill Clinton, and was a spokesperson for the President and the White House on matters concerning campaign-finance investigations and other legal issues.
 Fresh off the success of her with "The End of Men," Atlantic writer Hanna Rosin spoke to the issue of the growing gender equality and how men are handling the changes. Rosin theorizes that women have won the gender war, having "pulled decisively ahead [of men] by almost every measure." Rosin uses the shift in the American economy as one of her main sources. Here, jobs which traditionally held male-led jobs are now lost in the face of the recession and recovery of said economy. Rosin also cites rising college graduation rates, steady employment, and an increased presence in male-dominated fields such as politics and business. Rosin's analysis of the shift in gender roles within American society lead to questioning the validity of this shift. She states that women find themselves confident and capable in their new roles.
 Fifty years after the publication of The Port Huron Statement, Tom Hayden reflected on his years as a Freedom Rider, the SDS, the CED, and the California State Legislature. Out of those who were part of the Chicago 7, Hayden seemed to have outlasted the others. With Hoffman's suicide, Rubin's death after he was hit by a car, and the fact that Dellinger, Froines, and Davis disappeared back into the woodwork, Hayden (agree or disagree) turned out to be the most conventional of the lot. One of the people who joined us around the table, a staunch Republican real estate magnate, turned out to be a high school classmate of Hayden's.
 Neil Barofsky talked about the need for financial transparency which stemmed from his experience as the Enforcement Czar for the governments TARP program. In 2011 Barofsky sent a letter to President Obama stating that he would resign his post to spend more time with his family. At the time of his resignation, his office had more than 140 investigations underway. By then, his office charged a few dozen people with civil or criminal fraud, resulting in 14 convictions, more than $550 million in fraud losses avoided, and $150 million in fraudulent earnings recovered for taxpayers. He would make a stellar Attorney General in the Obama White House.
 Forty years later, it is still considered one of the classic political movies, with Robert Redford as young Bill McKay, a son of a California Governor and political novice. Academy Award winning screenwriter Jeremy Larner discussed how his movie not only presaged the growth of the campaign industry but why it is cautionary tale for all that enter the arena. Larner served as Gene McCarthy's main speechwriter in 1968. Afterwards Larner wrote a book, Nobody Knows, about his travels with the McCarthy Campaign, and most of it was serialized in Harpers Magazine in April & May 1969. This book got good reviews and was widely read by many who participated in the campaign and wondered what happened to McCarthy after the assassination of Robert Kennedy. I held Larner's Academy Award in my hands and instinctively "thanked the Academy."
|
|
|
The Luncheon Society™
 is a series of private luncheons and dinners that take place in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Manhattan, and Boston. During the Pandemic, we are on Zoom. Discussions center on politics, art, science, film, culture, and whatever else is on our mind. Think of us as "Adult Drop in Daycare." We've been around since 1996 and we're purposely understated; 2021 will be our 26th season. In these gatherings, you interact with the main guest and conversation becomes the end result. There are no rules, very little structure, and the gatherings happen when they happen. Join us when you can.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
