Michael Krasny, host of the award-winning KQED Forum program, will join the Uncharted Berkeley Festival of Ideas line-up next month to talk about his forthcoming book, Let There Be Laughter: A Treasury of Great Jewish Humor and What It All Means. It is the third book for Krasny, who, as well as being a broadcaster, is a scholar and Professor of English and American Literature.
Krasny will be in conversation with Berkeleyside Co-Founder Frances Dinkelspiel, author of two bestselling books: Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California, and Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California, which comes out in paperback next month.
The news coincides with the release of the Uncharted Festival schedule. Discounted tickets (over 30% off) for the festival — for one day or two days— are available through Friday Sept. 23.
Other festival speakers include NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen, who will talk with veteran White House reporter Kathy Kiely about the media’s role during a national election; Eve Ensler, creator of The Vagina Monologues, who will be in conversation with writer and political, cultural, literary and hip-hop voice, Kevin Powell; and Google’s Aminatou Sow, founder of Tech LadyMafia and co-host of the Call Your Girlfriend podcast. See speaker/performer list.
The festival, produced by Berkeleyside and now in its fourth year, has a tradition of blending fascinating conversations with innovative performances. This year it will welcome on stage the all-female, multi-ethnic dance collective Mix’d Ingrdnts, as well as three musicians from the Acoustic Guitar Project: Jessie Bridges, Steve Meckfessel and DB Walker.
The festival also offers several fun, interactive workshops. James Beard winner Kenji López-Alt, author of The Food Lab, will host one called ‘The Steak Myth,’ and TCHO’s Chief Chocolate Maker Brad Kintzer will host a “Chocolate Lab.”
End-of-Summer discounted tickets (over 35% off regular price) are available through Sept. 23 at BerkeleyIdeas.com.
Podcasts of 15 of conversations from last year’s Uncharted Festival can be downloaded for free on the Berkeleyside podcast channel on iTunes.
Uncharted: The Berkeley Festival of Ideas‘ sponsorship partners are: Autodesk; Cloudera; Wareham Development; DeYoe Wealth Management; Jetton Construction; North Berkeley Investment Partners; Panoramic Interests; 2000 Center Street LLC; Downtown Berkeley Association; Hotel Shattuck Plaza; UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley; The Grubb Company; Magoosh; BART; Minuteman Press; Andronico’s Community Markets; APS Wines; Drake’s Brewing Company; TCHO; and KALW.
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