A leading expert on women’s health and advisor to Michelle Obama, Dr. Sharon Malone joins us to discuss Grown Woman Talk: part medical handbook, part memoir—it is filled with useful resources, real-life stories, and boasts its very own playlist! This New York Times bestseller is "a must-read for anyone who cares about their quality of life . . . Dr. Sharon Malone is the first person I turn to for a whole host of issues, especially my health." –Michelle Obama

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Award-winning author of Call Me by Your Name, André Aciman returns to Charleston with a deeply romantic memoir of his time in Rome while on the cusp of adulthood. He will be in conversation with world-class audiobook narrator, Edoardo Ballerini. 

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Classicist Emily Wilson discusses her new “sparkling and buoyant” translation of The Iliad (New York Times). This effervescent version—a vivid retelling of Homer’s great war story for modern times—conveys the emotional impact of the timeless battlefield epic. 

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 BOOKER PRIZE. Paul Murray joins us to discuss The Bee Sting—a dazzling multi-generational family drama that touches on the passions of adolescence, the perils of secrecy, and the fallout of an economic downturn—all affected by concerns around global warming. 

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Neuroscientist and psychologist Charan Ranganath discusses groundbreaking new research that radically reframes how we think about memory and reveals the powerful role it plays in our lives; from recalling faces and names to learning, decision-making, and healing. 

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

“Race. Your Thoughts. Six Words. Please Send.” Award-winning journalist Michele Norris discusses her transformative national project on race and identity—a unique, moving compilation of personal stories, essays, and photographs providing a window into real-life experiences of race in the United States.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024. Claire Messud discusses her novel tracing three generations of an itinerant French family with roots in colonial Algeria. “One of those rare novels that a reader doesn’t merely read but lives through with the characters” (Yiyun Li).

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

World-famous Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro joins us to discuss his brilliant and stirring account of a 1930s culture war over the place of theater in American society with Dominic Dromgoole, former Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Eddie S. Glaude Jr. discusses his new book—a politically astute, lyrical meditation on how ordinary people can break loose from their reliance on a small group of professional politicians and assume individual responsibility for a more just and perfect democracy.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Born the heir to a crumbling English estate, Christopher Isherwood—the author of Goodbye to Berlin, inspiration for the musical Cabaret—died an icon of gay liberation in California. Join Katherine Bucknell as she discusses her revealing exploration of Isherwood’s lifelong search for authenticity.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David W. Blight answers the call to investigate Yale University’s historical involvement with slavery, the slave trade, and abolition. He considers his findings and future implications with Richard Brodhead, former Dean of Yale College and former President of Duke University. 

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

In France, 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus’s treason charge—for passing secret documents to the enemy—divided the country and led to a campaign that eventually exonerated him. Maurice Samuels, Director of the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism, discusses his new research with Adam Gopnik.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

An instant New York Times bestseller, Griffin Dunne discusses his warm, dramatic, and moving family story—full of twists and turns growing up among larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan. A family friend, journalist Marie Brenner, will join him in conversation.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Generation-defining poet, writer, and activist Nikki Giovanni—famous the world over for evocative works exploring themes of social justice, love, and the African American experience—will reflect on her life in poetry with IAAM CEO Dr. Tonya Matthews. 

In collaboration with the International African American Museum (IAAM)

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Ghanaian poet, Kwame Dawes, current poet laureate of Jamaica, joins US poet Kimiko Hahn onstage in a conversation on poetry across the globe, moderated by former poet laureate to South Carolina, Marjory Wentworth. 

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

“I define retirement as the phase of life in which I will do nothing but watch tennis” writes  Geoff Dyer in his meditation on endings. Join him as he muses on last performances and last works with plenty of lively detours along the way. 

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

“Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?” Experience a live staging, by the american vicarious, of the historic 1965 Cambridge Union debate between James Baldwin, leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., the US’s most influential conservative intellectual.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Peruvian-American author and Former Literary Director of the Library of Congress, Marie Arana discusses her sweeping book Latinoland and the revelations from hundreds of in-depth interviews and prodigious research into the fastest-growing minority group in the U.S. 

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

On K Street, a few blocks from The White House, sit the offices of the most powerful men in Washington. Join Brody and Luke Mullins as they discuss their dazzling, infuriating portrait of fifty years of corporate influence in the U.S. capital. 

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.