Andrew Solomon Is at LIVE from the NYPL Tonight!
Paul Holdengräber’s conversations at the New York Public Library are some of the freshest, most engaging events being conducted in the U.S. right now. For LIVE from the NYPL, he speaks with the smartest literary minds (e.g. Jonathan Franzen, Don DeLillo, et al) to some of the savviest musicians and hip-hop artists (e.g. Jay-Z, Henry Rollins, Pete Townshend). And, tonight at 7pm, Mr. Holdengräber will be in conversation with Andrew Solomon about his new book, Far from the Tree.
Krista will be in the audience for this one too. Word is if you use the code “FARFROMTHETREE” you’ll receive $10 off the ticket price listed. Here’s an intro to the event:
As a gay child of straight parents, Andrew Solomon was born with a sexual orientation that was considered an illness, but it became a cornerstone of his identity. As a journalist reporting on the growth of Deaf Pride in the 1990s, he began to consider illness and identity as a continuum with shifting boundaries. He saw the communities with such “horizontal identities,” spurred by the disability-rights movement and empowered by the Internet, were and are challenging the societal expectations and the norms surrounding identity.
Their stories begin in families coping with extreme difference: Dwarfism, Down Syndrome, Autism, multiple severe disabilities, or prodigious genius; children conceived in rape; children who identify as transgender; children who develop schizophrenia or commit serious crimes. The adage asserts that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but in Solomon’s explorations, some apples fall on the other side of the world. In Solomon’s view, difference is what unites us.
For ten years, after interviewing more than 300 families, Solomon has observed not just how some families learn to deal with exceptional children, but also how they find profound meaning in doing so. In Far From the Tree , Solomon mines the eloquence of those who have somehow summoned hope and courage in the face of heartbreaking prejudice and almost unimaginable physical, mental, and emotional difficulty.
Producing a “LIVE” Event
Colleen Scheck, senior producer
We were pleased to see The Daily Beast featured the New York Public Library’s backstage clip of their event with Krista last week. It’s a short snippet, and, with a bit of prime-time drama-like production, it effectively captures the substance and tenor of the event.
We’d been in touch with Paul Holdengräber and Meg Stemmler at the NYPL for a few months to prepare for this live evening — including discussions about various formats and stage partners (such as Alan Alda, who couldn’t make it). While it came off seamlessly, there was a bit of last-minute heroics that made it all happen.
Archival audio clips of Albert Einstein and segments from Krista’s conversations with Paul Davies, Freeman Dyson, and Andrew Solomon were selected and pulled together minutes before the performance began. (Moments like that make me think of the famous frantic-run scene from Broadcast News when Joan Cusack’s character rushes a videotape to the studio for live broadcast, pushing people aside and sliding under an open file cabinet. Well, ok, so it wasn’t that dramatic.)
In the end, NYPL’s brilliant ideas were worth it. Hearing the voice of Einstein was a fun and compelling way to open this conversation about the intersection of science, theology, philosophy, and medicine that is the backbone of Krista’s new book. And a wonderful conversation it was between Krista, Andrew Solomon, and Paul Holdengräber — exploring that intersection on both richly intellectual and deeply personal levels.
With a full house in NYC of more than 500 people, we were also excited that over 5,700 others watched our live stream online — something we are doing more of so that we can include the many of you who aren’t able to attend in person. It’s only fair, right?
If you missed it, you can watch it here:
And, if you want to participate in our upcoming events in April, check out our SOF Live page. We’ll be live streaming video of Krista’s interview with NPR’s Michel Martin in Washington DC, and Krista will be giving a solo performance in a gorgeous venue in Philadelphia where she’ll be playing clips and answering questions.
Tonight! SOF Live from the New York Public Library
» chat while you watch on our SOF Live page
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 (7pm Eastern)
Celeste Bartos Forum of The New York Public Library
42nd Street at 5th Avenue
New York, NY
Starting at 6:45pm Eastern tonight, we’ll be streaming live video of a public event with Krista and and Andrew Solomon, a former guest on “The Soul in Depression,” at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street.
Solomon is one of the thinkers in Krista’s new book, Einstein’s God: Conversations about Science and the Human Spirit, which draws on her radio conversations to explore an emerging interface of inquiry between many fields of science, medicine, theology, and philosophy. They’ll be using Einstein’s self-described “cosmic religious sense” as the starting point for a discussion about its intriguing compatibility with 21st-century sensibilities. It should be a lively and fulfilling conversation.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about this conversation. Please add your comments here.
The Trajectory of an Idea
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor
Our rebroadcast of ”Play, Spirit, and Character” allows me a natural entry point into sharing the incredible and unforeseen paths this program has taken over the past year. It also reminds me how important it is to get out, attend events, and experience what other people are imbibing. Doing this is one of the best ways of finding interesting program topics that are truly relevant in one’s daily life.
Over the past year, this program has resulted in a strange and wonderful lifecycle, which I’ll quickly recount with bullet points:
- I attend the 2007 PUSH Conference at the Walker Art Center and hear Stuart Brown speak, then
- Hearing the audience response to Stuart Brown’s presentation, I recount my experience while speaking with Krista and the staff. Krista says book him, then
- Krista interviews Dr. Brown. The conversation takes a rather serious tone to begin and rather dark by discussing mass murderers. We question whether it would make an interesting hour of radio since the conversation lacked the levity and playfulness we expected when thinking about a show on play, then
- Mitch collects compelling audio of kids swimming, dogs frolicking, and immigrants playing softball that illustrate points made. A show is produced, then
- I contact National Geographic photographer Norbert Rosing and pair his images with Stuart Brown’s talk to produce a brief narrated slide show. Digg.com and other social sites pick up “Animals at Play”resulting in more than three million views on speakingoffaith.org and 125,000 views on YouTube and Vimeo, then
- We partner with USC’s Annenberg School of Communications and the News21 Initiative to present a student’s production of young adults swinging on the rings in Santa Monica, then
- I get a call from a documentary producer at the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) asking about the popularity of the polar bear/sled dog video for their documentary on polar bear fever, then
- Photographer Norbert Rosing phones to tell me the traffic to his site has more than tripled and that he’s moved his polar bear photography books and photos to the home page because they are selling so quickly, then
- An editor from a London tabloid paper e-mails asking for the original scans of the polar bear/sled dog images for a feature piece, then
- Paul Holdengraber from the New York Public Library on 42nd Street invites Krista and Stuart Brown to be part of their NYPL Live! series. The evening results in a sold-out house, then
- The following week The New York Times Magazine’s cover features an in-depth piece, “Taking Play Seriously,” keying off of the event and Stuart Brown.
I attended an “ideas” conference with the thought that I would learn a little something new and meet a few people in the process; I had no intention of doing research for future SOF shows. That is, until I heard gasps of awe from the crowd during Stuart Brown’s presentation of polar bears and sled dogs playing in the wilds of Canada, and passionate discussion about raising kids with a sense of play and bringing that same sense of lightheartedness to work.
The journalist in me kicked in; I’m supposed to act on behalf of you, of those who can’t attend such events and share that information. Some of my colleagues were skeptical about the conference. They professed that the connection of ideas was nothing new or groundbreaking — but that wasn’t the point.
We work in a rich media environment in which we’re constantly bumping into other areas of discipline and making those connections. I get the privilege of actually sitting next to folks who work on documentaries, epicureans who write cookbooks and produce wonderful food shows, classical musicians and new media gurus, investigative journalists, and so on. Oh, and MPR brings in fabulous speakers like critic Terry Teachout, former CNN anchor Aaron Brown, classical musicians Trio Medieaval, and Ray Suarez to speak to us when they’re in town.
Most people don’t experience this panoply of big ideas on a daily basis; they work in very specialized industries making the numbers work and the products better. They may love their jobs, but they thirst for greater understanding and to simply play at the idea of an interconnected world of seemingly disparate ideas. I believe we did that with this show, and it makes me proud.
Seeing Listeners
Krista Tippett, Host
I can’t afford — personally or production-wise — to be on the road much of the time. But Kate and I are on a thoroughly energizing, enjoyable trip right now. And there is something amazingly wonderful about getting out like this every once in a while and looking out, while I speak, at a room full of bodies and faces.
The radio program has grown so much in reach and carriage these past years, yet what we do doesn’t change much. We just keep trying to get better and better at our craft. We create these hours of radio and pages of web content, put them up on the Internet and satellite, and move on to the next topic.
We know from e-mails that people receive our work and use and apply it — those e-mails helps keep me going every day. But to actually be in a room full of listeners is a pleasure and affirmation at a different level. I love radio as an intimate and mysterious medium. Seeing our listeners, on the road, adds another layer of discovery and mystery for me.
