City Arts & Lectures

Malcolm Gladwell returns to examine one of America’s deadliest and most polarizing issues: gun violence. In his new book, The American Way of Killing, Gladwell investigates the paradox of a country with huge wealth that still has high violence rates, finding fascinating origins, revealing stories, and hope for the future.

Malcolm Gladwell has become one of the world’s most beloved and influential thinkers through his insightful analyses on complex, polarizing, and urgent topics. A finalist for both the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award, Gladwell’s books, including Outliers and The Tipping Point, have expanded conversations around everything from criminal justice to human consciousness.  In 2016, he created the podcast “Revisionist History,” interviewing everyone from historians to runners, diving into what makes people, and the world, work. 
On October 3, 2026, Malcolm Gladwell came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco for an onstage conversation with journalist Lisa Armstrong, a professor at UC Berkeley.

On August 15, 2021, fighters entered Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, and the US-backed Islamic Republic of Afghanistan collapsed. Over 100,000 people were evacuated, and among them, locals who had worked for the New York Times. In their book, The Last Free Women, A Daring Escape from Afghanistan. Journalists Rebecca Blumenstein and Diana Capp detailed the New York Times' efforts to get them out and the lives of four of the women after they arrived in the United States. 
 Blumenstein and Capp came to KQED Studios on August 3, 2026 to talk about the book with journalist Deepa Fernandez. 

The legendary restaurateur Danny Meyer’s new book, What Could Go Right, is about the unique culture of his restaurant group, from some of New York's best known fine dining institutions like Union Square Café and Gramercy Tavern to Shake Shack, a burger chain with nearly 400 locations. On October 8, 2026, Meyer came to KQED Studios to talk to Steven Wynn about what he defines as true hospitality and some of the highs and lows of his decades in the business. 

Kyle MacLachlan has built a fascinating acting career, performing in everything from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks to the adaptation of the video game Fallout. In the process, he has become a beloved cultural icon. MacLachlan’s 1984 film debut was the starring role in Lynch’s Dune. He would go on to work with the experimental director on multiple projects, including the classic film Blue Velvet. For his performance as Special Agent Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks, MacLachlan won a Golden Globe and gained international fame. More recently, he has gained a new group of fans through his award-winning performance in the show Fallout and the crime comedy show The Lowdown, his podcasts, and social media.   On October 2, 2026, Kyle MacLachlan came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk with Jesse Hawthorne Ficks about his new memoir Fictional Selves.