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January 4
"Zero-Sum," The new book by New York Times Best-Selling Author Joyce Carole Oates, Winner of The National Book Award, O. Henry Award, Rea Award for the Short Story.
Zero-sum games are played for lethal stakes in these arresting stories by one of America’s most acclaimed writers, the award-winning, best-selling author of Blonde. A brilliant young philosophy student bent on seducing her famous philosopher-mentor finds herself outmaneuvered; diabolically clever high school girls wreak a particularly apt sort of vengeance on sexual predators in their community; a woman stalked by a would-be killer may be confiding in the wrong former lover; a young woman is morbidly obsessed by her unfamiliar new role as “mother.” In the collection’s longest story, a much-praised cutting-edge writer cruelly experiments with “drafts” of his own suicide. In these powerfully wrought stories that hold a mirror up to our time, Joyce Carol Oates has created a world of erotic obsession, thwarted idealism, and ever-shifting identities. Provocative and stunning, Zero-Sum reinforces Oates’s standing as a literary treasure and an artist of the mysterious interior life.
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January 26
The new book by former CIA Director and Retired General David Petraeus on the modern nature of Conflict
In this deep and incisive study, General David Petraeus, who commanded the US-led coalitions in both Iraq, during the Surge, and Afghanistan and former CIA director, and the prize-winning historian Andrew Roberts, explore over 70 years of conflict, drawing significant lessons and insights from their fresh analysis of the past. Drawing on their different perspectives and areas of expertise, Petraeus and Roberts show how often critical mistakes have been repeated time and again, and the challenge, for statesmen and generals alike, of learning to adapt to various new weapon systems, theories and strategies. Among the conflicts examined are the Arab-Israeli wars, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the two Gulf Wars, the Balkan wars in the former Yugoslavia, and both the Soviet and Coalition wars in Afghanistan, as well as guerilla conflicts in Africa and South America. Conflict culminates with a bracing look at Putin’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine, yet another case study in the tragic results when leaders refuse to learn from history, and an assessment of the nature of future warfare. Filled with sharp insight and the wisdom of experience, Conflict is not only a critical assessment of our recent past, but also an essential primer of modern warfare that provides crucial knowledge for waging battle today as well as for understanding what the decades ahead will bring.
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February 7
Jack Devine, Former CIA Chief of Worldwide Operations and Former Acting Director of the CIA on what what happens next in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Will Putin be removed in a "Black Swan Coup?" How does the Middle East play out? Jack Devine ran Charlie Wilson's War in Afghanistan. It was the largest covert action of the Cold War, and it was Devine who put the brand-new Stinger missile into the hands of the mujahideen during their war with the Soviets, paving the way to a decisive victory against the Russians. He also pushed the CIA's effort to run down the narcotics trafficker Pablo Escobarin Colombia. He tried to warn the director of central intelligence, George Tenet, that there was a bullet coming from Iraq with his name on it. He was in Chile when Allende fell, and he had too much to do with Iran-Contra for his own taste, though he tried to stop it. He also tangled with Rick Ames, the KGB spy inside the CIA, and hunted Robert Hanssen, the mole in the FBI. This is a story of intrigue and high-stakes maneuvering - all the more gripping when the fate of our geopolitical order hangs in the balance. But this also sounds a warning to our nation's decision makers: covert operations, not costly and devastating full-scale interventions, are the best safeguard of America's interests worldwide. Beneath the exotic allure - living abroad, running operations in seven countries, serving successive presidents from Nixon to Clinton - this is a realist's gimlet-eyed account of the CIA. As Devine sees it, the agency is now trapped within a larger bureaucracy, losing swaths of turf to the military, and most ominous of all, becoming overly weighted toward paramilitary operations after a decade of war.
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February 19
Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise, His book “Never Panic Early.”
In the gripping Never Panic Early, Fred Haise, Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 13, offers a detailed firsthand account of when disaster struck three days into his mission to the moon. An oxygen tank exploded, a crewmate uttered the now iconic words, “Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” and the world anxiously watched as one of history’s most incredible rescue missions unfolded. Haise brings readers into the heart of his experience on the challenging mission--considered NASA’s finest hour--and reflects on his life and career as an Apollo astronaut. In this personal and illuminating memoir, illustrated with black-and-white photographs, Haise takes an introspective look at the thrills and triumphs, regrets and disappointments, and lessons that defined his career, including his years as a military fighter pilot and his successful 20-year NASA career that would have made him the sixth man on the moon had Apollo 13 gone right.
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February 29
Melba Pattillo Beals.
The Little Rock Nine and the historic integration of Central High in 1957.
Melba Pattillo Beals, a member of The Little Rock Nine explores not only the oppressive force of racism, but the ability of young people to change ideas of race and identity. In 1957, well before Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Melba Pattillo Beals and eight other teenagers became iconic symbols for the Civil Rights Movement and the dismantling of Jim Crow in the American South as they integrated Little Rock’s Central High School in the wake of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education. Throughout her harrowing ordeal, Melba was taunted by her schoolmates and their parents, threatened by a lynch mob’s rope, attacked with lighted sticks of dynamite, and injured by acid sprayed in her eyes. But through it all, she acted with dignity and courage, and refused to back down. Melba Pattillo Beals is a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal.
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March 22
Four Time Space Shuttle Astronaut Tom Jones with his book, "Space Shuttle Stories."
NASA's space shuttle was the world's first reusable spacecraft, accomplishing many firsts and inspiring generations across its 30-year lifespan as America's iconic spaceship. In Space Shuttle Stories, shuttle astronaut Tom Jones interviewed more than 130 fellow astronauts for personal vignettes from each mission, complemented by their written accounts for all 135 space shuttle missions, from Columbia's maiden flight in 1981 to the final launch of Atlantis in 2011. The book is a major contribution to the historical record of a momentous era of spaceflight. The Space Shuttle program’s 6 orbiter vehicles (Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour) carried a total of 355 astronauts into orbit on 135 missions aimed at cutting-edge scientific research, satellite launch, retrieval and repair, collaborative work with the Russian Mir station, the launching and servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope, and the construction of the International Space Station. Space Shuttle Stories focuses on the lived, human experiences of larger-than-life space missions. It's a definitive oral history that captures the importance, wonder, and exhilaration of the Space Shuttle era.
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March 26
NASA Legendary Flight Controller Gene Kranz on his new book “Tough and Competent: Leadership and Team Chemistry.”
Tough and Competent documents the leadership and teamwork principles which emerged from an organization of novice, part-time engineers in NASA Mercury Control. By July 1969, when faced with the stress of the Apollo 11 mission to land Americans on the moon, they had matured into a group of hardened individuals empowered to make the split-second decisions to land with only seventeen seconds of fuel remaining. What had changed? Team chemistry, IT!, is the unifying soul of operations that emerged from the leadership, working, and social environment to achieve organizational excellence. Mission Control could address quickly the risks and complexity of spaceflight operations. The intangible element, IT!, elevates performance to where the impossible becomes commonplace. He is a co-recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his efforts to save Apollo 13. Gene developed an early interest in aeronautics that would lead to a long and distinguished space career. Kranz played a critical role in many milestones in America's space program, serving as flight director for Apollo 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17. He held a critical role in NASA's Mission Control for 34 years, from Project Mercury through STS-61. IT! was born in a bare-bones warehouse floor work environment, where learning by doing developed the materials for flight. Controllers spanned diverse backgrounds: Philco tech reps, farm boys, Native Americans, and junior college grads who became self-made engineers. A free exchange of knowledge developed expertise among colleagues. Everyone brought unique viewpoints and skills which coalesced into IT! In relaying his long tenure at NASA, Kranz narrates the development of IT! His views on lessons learned through decades of Mission Control are valuable for any innovation-based organization.
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April 12
Jeffrey Toobin on 50 years after the Patty Hearst Kidnapping, “Heiress”
50 years ago, on April 15, 1974, Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army robbed the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco. It was a time when America seemed to be suffering a collective nervous breakdown. There was the kidnapping, the hostage cassette tapes, the free food drops, the bandaged head of Stephen Weed, the bank footage from Hibernia robbery which showed Hearst carrying a semi-automatic weapon, her announcement that she was now Tania, her exasperated parents, her inclusion on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List, the live broadcast of the explosive fire fight in Los Angeles with the LAPD, her placing of bombs under police cars, the Crocker Bank robbery, her capture, and her trial, conviction, and her subsequent commutation by President Carter, followed by her pardon by President Clinton. Was Patty Hearst a victim or a willing participant? 50 years later--to the week--of the 1974 Hibernia Bank robbery, we revisit Jeffrey Toobin's 2017 New York Times Best-Seller "American Heiress," which became the basis of the astounding multi-part CNN documentary.
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May 9
Constitutional Scholar Lawrence Tribe on Presidential Immunity.
One of America's foremost constitutional scholars, Harvard’s Lawrence Tribe will talk about the nature of presidential immunity. In agreeing to hear former President Donald Trump’s immunity claim, the Supreme Court identified the key issue to be decided as follows: Whether and if so to what extent does a former President enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office. “We have seen how far attempts to impeach and remove a president go. Donald Trump violated the most fundamental principles when he tried to overturn the election that ended his presidency. That wasn't enough to remove him from office. The impeachment process has proven ineffective. In truth, it was only the prospect of eventually being criminally prosecuted that limited American presidents. When Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency in 1974, the impeachment process had not yet been rendered as ineffectual as it is today. Nevertheless, his successor Gerald Ford pardoned him because he feared that Nixon could be criminally prosecuted for the way he abused the Justice Department. But the Supreme Court ruling now says that a president enjoys absolute immunity, even if he directs the attorney general to take action against a political opponent, which is an obvious abuse of power.”
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May 23
First Daughter and bestselling author Patti Davis “Dear Mom and Dad”
Written with dignity and grace in the form of a letter to her parents, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Dear Mom and Dad is that surprisingly poignant work that succeeds not only as a memoir but as a moving account that will inspire listeners to recall their own childhoods in a totally new light. Eager to retell the narrative of her own family and her coming-of-age, Patti Davis casts aside misperceptions that defined her in the past. Far from being the enfant terrible, Dear Mom and Dad reveals young Patti as a sensitive child, who was not able to be the public person her family demanded. Davis casts an empathetic yet honest eye on her parents—on her father, the eternal lifeguard, who saved seventy-seven people, yet failed to create a coherent AIDS policy, and her mother, who never escaped her own tortured youth. What comes across are Davis's burnished skills as a writer. Even as she unravels her mother's highly edited persona, and her father's loving but distant personality, Davis remains steadfast in her artistic expression, as she melds irony, comedy, and tragedy with dreamlike memories of an ever-present past. Dear Mom and Dad, with its account of her father's Alzheimer's and her mother's end-of-life struggles, becomes an account of forgiveness, reaching levels of redemption rarely found in contemporary memoirs.
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May 30
NY Times Best-Selling Author Amy Tan “The Backyard Bird Chronicles”
A gorgeous, witty account of birding, nature, and the beauty around us that hides in plain sight, written and illustrated by the best-selling author of The Joy Luck Club. In 2016, Amy Tan grew overwhelmed by the state of the world: Hatred and misinformation became a daily presence on social media, and the country felt more divisive than ever. In search of peace, Tan turned toward the natural world just beyond her window and, specifically, the birds visiting her yard. But what began as an attempt to find solace turned into something far greater—an opportunity to savor quiet moments during a volatile time, connect to nature in a meaningful way, and imagine the intricate lives of the birds she admired. Tracking the natural beauty that surrounds us, The Backyard Bird Chronicles maps the passage of time through daily entries, thoughtful questions, and beautiful original sketches. With boundless charm and wit, author Amy Tan charts her foray into birding and the natural wonders of the world.
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June 7
NY Times Best-Selling author Chip Conley, “Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better with Age.”
New York Times bestselling author and co-founder/CEO of The Modern Elder Academy reminds us all to savor the wisdom, self-knowledge, and joy that accompanies [the middle decades] of our lives. The midlife crisis is the butt of so many jokes, but this long-derided life stage has an upside. What if we could reframe our thinking about the natural transition of midlife not as a crisis, but as a chrysalis—a time when something profound awakens in us, as we shed our skin, spread our wings, and pollinate our wisdom to the world? In Learning to Love Midlife, Chip Conley offers an alternative narrative to the way we commonly think of our 40s, 50s and 60s. Drawing on the latest social science research, inspiring stories, and timeless wisdom, he reveals 12 reasons why life gets better with age. No matter where you are in your midlife journey, this perspective‑shifting guide will inspire you to find joy, purpose and success in the years that lie ahead—and how those years can be your best ones yet.
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June 26
The University of Virginia’s Larry Sabato on the state of the political chessboard, 24 hours before the Biden-Trump debate
On the day before the Biden-Trump debate, Larry Sabato joined us for an off-the-record conversation that voiced his own personal doubts about the Biden effort. Larry Sabato, one of the leading experts in American politics, will bring together respected journalists and academics from across the political spectrum to examine every facet of the 2022 midterm election, and what its development and outcome will mean for the nation moving forward. In frank, accessible prose, each author offers insight that goes beyond the headlines, and dives into the underlying forces and shifts that drove the election from its earliest developments to its dramatic conclusion. Following Sabato’s introductory analysis, the contributors will provide a comprehensive review of everything in play during the 2022 midterms and look ahead to the 2024 presidential campaign.
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July 8
US Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient and Chilean author Isabel Allende on her new book, The Wind Knows My Name
Isabel Allende is one of the most consequential authors on the planet. She is a highly acclaimed author of 21 books that have sold 65 million copies in 35 languages. She won worldwide acclaim when her bestselling first novel, The House of the Spirits, was published in 1982. She has been recognized with numerous awards internationally. She received the prestigious National Literary Award in Chile, her country of origin, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The Wind Knows My Name (2023) is out in paperback and Perla has just been released.
Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler is five years old when his father disappears during Kristallnacht—the night his family loses everything. As her child’s safety becomes ever harder to guarantee, Samuel’s mother secures a spot for him on a Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to England. He boards alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.
Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Díaz and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. But their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and seven-year-old Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes her tenuous reality through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination. Meanwhile, Selena Durán, a young social worker, enlists the help of a successful lawyer in hopes of tracking down Anita’s mother. Intertwining past and present, The Wind Knows My Name tells the tale of these two unforgettable characters, both in search of family and home. It is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers—and never stop dreaming.
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July 22
4x time NASA space shuttle astronaut Scott Kelly on the impact of long-duration spaceflight in his book "Infinite Wonder."
Scott Kelly is a former military fighter pilot and test pilot, an engineer, a retired astronaut, and a retired U.S. Navy captain. A veteran of four space flights, Kelly commanded the International Space Station on Expeditions 26, 45, and 46. Kelly's first spaceflight was as pilot of Space Shuttle Discovery during STS-103 in December 1999. Kelly commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on three expeditions and was a member of the yearlong mission to the ISS. In October 2015, he set the record for the total accumulated number of days spent in space, the single longest space mission by an American astronaut. A stunning memoir from the astronaut who spent a record-breaking year aboard the International Space Station - a candid account of his remarkable voyage, of the journeys off the planet that preceded it, and of his colorful formative years. The veteran of four space flights and the American record holder for consecutive days spent in space, Scott Kelly has experienced things very few have. Now he takes us inside a sphere utterly inimical to human life. He describes navigating the extreme challenge of long-term spaceflight, both existential and banal: the devastating effects on the body; the isolation from everyone he loves and the comforts of Earth; the pressures of constant close cohabitation; the catastrophic risks of depressurization or colliding with space junk; and the still more haunting threat of being unable to help should tragedy strike at home - an agonizing situation Kelly faced when, on another mission, his twin brother's wife, Gabrielle Giffords, was shot while he still had two months in space. Kelly's humanity, compassion, humor, and passion resonate throughout as he recalls his rough-and-tumble New Jersey childhood and the youthful inspiration that sparked his astounding career and as he makes clear his belief that Mars will be the next ultimately challenging step in American spaceflight.
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August 7
Griffin Dunne and his new memoir, “The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir.
Griffin’s memoir of growing up among larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan finds wicked humor and glimmers of light in even the most painful of circumstances. At eight, Sean Connery saved him from drowning. At thirteen, desperate to hook up with Janis Joplin, he attended his Aunt Joan Didion and Uncle John Gregory Dunne’s legendary LA launch party for Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. In his twenties, he produced and starred in the now-iconic film After Hours, directed by Martin Scorsese. Griffin’s twenty-two-year-old sister, Dominique, a rising star in Hollywood, was brutally strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend, leading to one of the most infamous public trials of the 1980s. The outcome was a travesty of justice that marked the beginning of their father Dominick Dunne’s career as a crime reporter for Vanity Fair and a victims' rights activist. Griffin produced and directed the Netflix documentary about Joan Didion, titled, The Center will not Hold,” which reflects on her remarkable career.
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August 7
Theranos Whistleblower Tyler Shultz and his memoir, “Thicker than Water.”
It was something out of a John Grisham novel. Tyler Shultz felt that he found the job of a lifetime, only to stumble into Elizabeth Holmes, who created the greatest con-game in Silicon Valley--a biotech scam called Theranos. It took the absolute courage of Tyler Shultz to act as the Whistleblower and expose the fraud. Tyler was bullied by his grandfather, Theranos Board member and former Secretary of State George Shultz. He was hounded by Theranos's super-attorney David Boies. He was followed by a whole army of private investigators. He was personally targeted by a whole team of Theranos public relations staff. He racked up a half-million dollars in legal fees.
But Tyler Shultz told the truth. He stood up and was counted. Investors lost billions. And Elizabeth Holmes went to jail—where she still remains today.
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September 12
New York Times Best-Selling author and "Prairie Home Companion" host Garrison Keillor and his new book, “Brisk Verse.”
As the creator of the fictional Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor came to national attention as the host of NPR’s Prairie Home Companion. He is the consummate storyteller, gifted with the rare ability, both in print and in performance, to hold an audience spellbound with his tales of ordinary people whose lives contain extraordinary moments of humor, tenderness, and grace. Garrison’s new book, Brisk Verse, a collection of original invigorating verse. Read it to yourself or aloud to friends, family, or passersby. One hundred and thirty-two poems in all — diverse topics, including Brevity, Thongs, Minnesota, Manners, Mozart, Marilyn Monroe, Failure, Fatherhood, Episcopalians, Plumbing, Spaghetti, Spring, Online Love, Eighty, and the National Anthem as it might’ve been written by Whitman, Dickinson, Eliot, Frost, and other poets.
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September 27
Former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on Ukraine.
Leon Panetta rejoins The Luncheon Society for the third time, and we will ponder what the endgame might look like for the conflict in Ukraine. Secretary Panetta is chairman of the Panetta Institute for Public Policy and former secretary of defense; as director of the CIA, he successfully led the operation that brought Osama bin Laden to justice. In 1993, he was sworn in as director of the US Office of Management and Budget for the Clinton administration, where he was instrumental in achieving a balanced federal budget; he was later appointed White House chief of staff. In 1997, he and Sylvia Panetta established the Panetta Institute for Public Policy.
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October 30
The 2024 Presidential Election Roundtable with Marvin Kalb, Ben Bradlee Jr., David Maraniss, and Jamie Stiehm
With only days before the presidential election, The Luncheon Society sits down with four great political minds as we sift through the significance of this national political contest. Marvin Kalb’s distinguished journalism career encompasses 30 years of award-winning reporting for CBS and NBC News as Chief Diplomatic Correspondent, Moscow bureau chief and anchor of "Meet the Press." Kalb was the last of the original "Murrow Boys," hired by the iconic CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow. He is also an expert in national security, with a focus on U.S. relations with Russia, Europe, and the Middle East. Ben Bradlee Jr. is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist formerly with the Boston Globe and the author of five books. Bradlee’s most recent book, on the election of Donald Trump, was published by Little, Brown in 2018. The Forgotten: How the People of One Pennsylvania County Elected Donald Trump and Changed America, is an in-depth examination of Trump voters in Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County, a swing county in the Northeast part of the state, which played a pivotal role in Trump’s election. As Deputy Managing Editor of The Boston Globe, he oversaw the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church from July 2001 to August 2002. David Maraniss is a New York Times best-selling author, fellow of the Society of American Historians, and visiting distinguished professor at Vanderbilt University. He 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. Jamie Elizabeth Stiehm is a Washington journalist and public speaker who writes a syndicated column on national politics and history for Creators Syndicate. Her commentaries and op-eds have appeared in leading newspapers across the nation, such as American Heritage, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and San Francisco Chronicle. On January 6, 2021, Jamie was there--in the Capital alongside politicians and members of the press huddled in Capitol nooks—and confronting their own mortality as sounds of shattering glass and gunshots drew closer. Her explosive collection of her delicately lyrical syndicated columns are found in her new book, “The War Within.”
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November 4
Jonathan Alter and his new book, “American Reckoning: Inside Trump’s Trial—and My Own.”
A vivid eyewitness account of the historic first criminal trial of a president and a cri de coeur for democracy from a New York Times bestselling author and presidential historian.
As one of a handful of journalists allowed in the courtroom, for 23 days Jonathan Alter sat just feet away from the most dangerous threat to democracy in American history, watching the spectacle of the century: the felony trial of Donald Trump. Highly publicized but untelevised and thus largely hidden from public view, this landmark trial offered hope of real justice amid a grueling eight-year national ordeal and foreshadowed the drama of the 2024 presidential election. Alter shares everything he witnessed—from eviscerating takes on the colorful characters to the chilling legal ups and downs—to offer a barbed account of the trial and its aftermath, including fresh reporting about the historic events of the summer of 2024. A Zelig of journalism experiencing a crisis of faith in the good sense of the American people, Alter chronicles the shaping of his political consciousness and his bracing, unpredictable relationships with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, and Joe Biden, whose decision to stand down in favor of former prosecutor Kamala Harris put the criminal trial front and center as Americans render their own verdict at the polls. Deeply personal and passionate, American Reckoning is an eye-opening book from a journalist with a front row seat on history, offering a troubled yet hopeful look at our national moment of truth.
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November 12
Apollo 9 Astronaut Rusty Schweickart talks about what space travel means for humanity as a species.
Apollo 9 Astronaut Rusty Schweickart rejoins The Luncheon Society for a conversation about what space travel means for us as a society and as a species. Below is Rusty Schweickart's speech as the received the "Legend of Exploration Medal" at the 120th Explorer's Club Annual Dinner in New York. It took place in April of this year. Rusty is a former Apollo astronaut and retired Chairman of the Board of the B612 Foundation. The Organization, a non-profit private foundation, champions the development of a space system to protect the Earth from future asteroid impacts. B612 is a group of scientific professionals and other technical people, who are involved in and concerned about the current lack of action to protect the Earth from the impact of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). One of the realities which prompted us to form the B612 Foundation and establish the B612 goal is that the current Spaceguard detection program, undertaken by NASA in 1998 at the urging of the US Congress, is slowly but systematically discovering the NEAs over 1 km. in diameter. Schweickart joined NASA as one of 14 astronauts named in October 1963, the third group of astronauts selected. He served as lunar module pilot for Apollo 9, March 3-13, 1969, logging 241 hours in space. This was the third manned flight of the Apollo series and the first manned flight of the lunar module. During a 46 minute EVA Schweickart tested the portable life support backpack which was subsequently used on the lunar surface explorations. Schweickart served as backup commander for the first Skylab mission which flew in the Spring of 1973. Schweickart is the founder and past president of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), the international professional society of astronauts and cosmonauts.
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November 12
Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat and his new book, “The Art of Diplomacy: How American Negotiators Reached Historic Agreements that Changed the World”
In one readable volume, diplomat and negotiator Stuart E. Eizenstat covers every major contemporary international agreement, from the treaty to end the Vietnam War to the Kyoto Protocols and the Iranian Nuclear Accord. Written from the perspective that only a participant in top level negotiations can bring, Eizenstat recounts the events that led up to the negotiation, the drama that took place around the table, and draws lessons from successful and unsuccessful strategies and tactics. Based on interviews with over 60 key figures in American diplomacy, including former presidents and secretaries of state, and major political figures abroad, Eizenstat provides an intimate view of diplomacy as today’s history. The Art of Diplomacy will be an indispensable volume to understand American foreign policy and provide invaluable insights on the art of negotiation for anyone involved in government or business negotiations.
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December 16
Poet Andrei Codrescu and his book, “Too Late For Nightmares: Poems.”
Each year of The Luncheon Society ends with poetry—and this 29th season is no different. A book of poems by multi-award winning poet, author, commentator Andrei Codrescu. His poems reflect musings and thoughts on the human condition as well as the passage of time. Andrei Codrescu has been a commentator on "All Things Considered" since 1983 until 2016. He is an homme-de-lettres whose novels, essays and poetry have been infiltrating the American psyche since he emigrated from his native Romania to Detroit in 1965. “I originally thought that I might select a few commentaries from my regular contributions to NPR's All Things Considered from the more than three decades (1983-2016) I opined, played, and raged in brief essays. This turned out to be psychologically wrenching plus impossible, so I am offering instead a link to the many pieces digitized in the NPR archive. There are many essays from the analog days that haven't made it into the archive, but some of them may be found in print in a number of published collections: "A Craving for Swan," (1986) and "Raised by Puppets Only to be Killed by Research." There are also audio recordings in "Plato Sucks" (Dove Audio). My editors at NPR have kindly offered "to keep the door open," should I find speaking to 26 million people interesting again. When I started in 1983 there were only three or six million listeners, so who wouldn't like to talk to 9 times as many? A lot of people, I'm sure, but at this point the form feels exhausted. Everyone opines on the internet, satire rules the republic, ignorance is a cabinet post, and the world is generally either opiated or overspecialized. Poetry can do a better job. Not only that, but poetry will be the new currency as the default currencies melt like the glaciers. You can't pay for rutabagas with poetry yet, but it won't be long.”
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The Luncheon Society™
began as a series of private luncheons and dinners that take place in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Manhattan, and Boston. In 2020, we moved to 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. These gatherings takes place around a large table, where you interact with the main guest and conversation becomes end result. There are no rules, very little structure, and the gatherings happen when they happen. Join us when you can.
2025 will be our 30th season.
Hope you can join us.
Bob McBarton
bob.mcbarton@comcast.net
The Luncheon Society
cell 925.216.9578
Twitter: @LuncheonSociety
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