The New Yorker Festival 2011

Experience the best of the New Yorker Festival 2011.

Speakers

• Andy Borowitz
  Comedian; Writer, The New Yorker Andy Borowitz contributes humor pieces to The New Yorker and is the creator of the satirical Web site The Borowitz Report. He edited "The Fifty Funniest American Writers," which is out in October.
• Atul Gawande
  Staff Writer, The New Yorker Atul Gawande is a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He is the author of Complications," "Better," and "The Checklist Manifesto." His New Yorker article "Letting Go" won this year’s National Magazine Award for public-interest journalism.
• Barry Scheck
  Co-founder, The Innocence Project Barry Scheck is a founding director of the Innocence Project, whose mission is to use DNA testing to exonerate people who have been wrongly convicted of crimes. To date, more than two hundred and seventy people have been exonerated, including seventeen on death row. He is the co-author of "Actual Innocence: Five Days to Execution, and Other Dispatches from the Wrongly Convicted."
• Colson Whitehead
  Author, "Zone One" Colson Whitehead is the author of the novels "The Intuitionist," "John Henry Days," "Apex Hides the Hurt," and "Sag Harbor," part of which first appeared in The New Yorker, as well as "The Colossus of New York," a meditation on his native city. His next novel, "Zone One," comes out in October.
• Danalynn Recer
  Founder and Executive Director, Gulf Region Advocacy Center Danalynn Recer is the founder and executive director of the Gulf Region Advocacy Center, a Houston-based organization that represents defendants in death-penalty cases. Previously, she worked as an attorney with the Texas Resource Center and with the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center. She has represented more than a hundred capital clients over the past two decades.
• David Remnick
  Editor, The New Yorker David Remnick is the editor of The New Yorker.
• Deborah Treisman
  Fiction Editor, The New Yorker Deborah Treisman is the fiction editor of The New Yorker.
• Dexter Filkins
  Staff Writer, The New Yorker Dexter Filkins joined The New Yorker in January and has reported from Yemen and Afghanistan. Previously, he was at the Times, where he won a Pulitzer Prize as part of a team covering Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has received two George Polk Awards and three Overseas Press Club Awards. His book, "The Forever War," won a National Book Critics Circle Award.
• Dorothy Wickenden
  Executive Editor, The New Yorker Dorothy Wickenden is the executive editor of The New Yorker. Her book "Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West" came out in June.
• Emily Flake
  Cartoonist, The New Yorker Emily Flake is a New Yorker cartoonist and the author of the illustrated book "These Things Ain’t Gonna Smoke Themselves."
• Gary Shteyngart
  Author, "Super Sad True Love Story" Gary Shteyngart was born in Leningrad. His novels include "Absurdistan" and "Super Sad True Love Story," which won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize; both were excerpted in The New Yorker. His début novel, "The Russian Debutante’s Handbook," won a Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and a National Jewish Book Award for fiction.
• Gay Talese
  Author; Writer, The New Yorker Gay Talese is the author of eleven books, including the memoir "A Writer's Life" and "The Silent Season of a Hero," a collection of his sportswriting. He has contributed to The New Yorker since 1995; his recent subjects for the magazine include the opera singer Marina Poplavaskaya and Tony Bennett.
• Geoff Dyer
  Author, "The Missing of the Somme" Geoff Dyer is the author of twelve books, including "But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz," "The Ongoing Moment," "Out of Sheer Rage," "Paris Trance," "Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi," and "The Missing of the Somme," which was reissued in paperback in August. "Otherwise Known as the Human Condition," a collection of his essays and criticism, came out in March.
• George Saunders
  Author, "The Braindead Megaphone" George Saunders has written three story collections, including "In Persuasion Nation"; an illustrated novella, "The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil"; and "The Braindead Megaphone," a collection of essays, many of which were first published in The New Yorker. His story "Home" appeared in the June 13th & 20th Summer Fiction Issue.
• Henry Finder
  Editorial Director, The New Yorker Henry Finder is the editorial director of The New Yorker.
• Ian Frazier
  Author; Staff Writer, The New Yorker Ian Frazier has been writing for The New Yorker since 1974. His books include "Dating Your Mom," "Lamentations of the Father," and "Great Plains." "Travels in Siberia," parts of which first appeared in The New Yorker, came out last year.
• James Surowiecki
  Author; Staff Writer, The New Yorker James Surowiecki has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2000 and writes the magazine’s Financial Page. He is the author of "The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations."
• Jane Mayer
  Author; Staff Writer, The New Yorker Jane Mayer has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1995. Her honors include the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her most recent book is "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals."
• Janet Malcolm
  Author; Staff Writer, The New Yorker Janet Malcolm began contributing to The New Yorker in 1963. Her many books include "Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession," "The Journalist and the Murderer," "Reading Chekhov: A Critical Journey," and "Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice." Her most recent, "Iphigenia in Forest Hills: Anatomy of a Murder Trial," grew out of a New Yorker piece published last year.
• Jeffrey Eugenides
  Author, "The Marriage Plot" Jeffrey Eugenides is the author of the novels "The Virgin Suicides" and the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Middlesex," parts of which originally ran in The New Yorker. His third novel, "The Marriage Plot," comes out in October; an excerpt appeared in the June 13th & 20th Summer Fiction Issue. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Whiting Writers’ Award.
• Jeffrey Toobin
  Staff Writer, The New Yorker Jeffrey Toobin is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a senior analyst for CNN. "The Mitigator," his piece about capital punishment and Danalynn Recer, appeared in the May 9th issue.
• Jhumpa Lahiri
  Author, "Unaccustomed Earth" Jhumpa Lahiri was born in England to Bengali parents. Her books include the collections ""Unaccustomed Earth" and "Interpreter of Maladies," which won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and the novel "The Namesake." Parts of all three were first published in The New Yorker. Last year, she was appointed to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
• Jon Lee Anderson
  Author; Staff Writer, The New Yorker Jon Lee Anderson has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1999. He has reported from Africa, South America, and the Middle East, and this year he covered the wars in Afghanistan and Libya. His books include "The Lion’s Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan," "Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life," and, most recently, "The Fall of Baghdad."
• Jonathan Franzen
  Author; Staff Writer, The New Yorker Jonathan Franzen is the author of the novel "Freedom," parts of which first appeared in The New Yorker. His previous books include "The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History"; the essay collection "How to Be Alone"; and the novels "Strong Motion," "The Twenty-Seventh City," and "The Corrections." He has contributed to The New Yorker since 1994.
• Joshua Marquis
  District Attorney, Astoria, OR Joshua Marquis has been the district attorney in Astoria, Oregon, since 1994. A member of the board of directors of the National District Attorneys Association for the past fourteen years, he was the chair of its Capital Litigation Committee. His essay "Truth and Consequences" is included in the collection "Debating the Death Penalty."
• Joyce Carol Oates
  Award-winning Author Joyce Carol Oates has published numerous novels and story collections, most recently "Give Me Your Heart." "A Widow’s Story: A Memoir," part of which first appeared in The New Yorker, came out in February. She has received the National Book Award and the National Humanities Medal, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
• Karen Russell
  Author, "Swamplandia!" Karen Russell is the author of the collection "St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves," which includes "Haunting Olivia," her first New Yorker story. Her most recent story for the magazine, "The Dredgeman’s Revelation," was included in the "20 Under 40" series and anthology and was part of her début novel, "Swamplandia!"
• Lynsey Addario
  Photojournalist for The New York Times, National Geographic, and Time Lynsey Addario is a photojournalist who has contributed to the Times, National Geographic, and Time. She has covered the recent upheavals in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Darfur, Haiti, and the Congo. In March, she was one of four Times journalists detained for six days by the Libyan Army. Her honors include a MacArthur Fellowship and the Overseas Press Club’s Olivier Rebbot Award.
• Malcolm Gladwell
  Author; Staff Writer, The New Yorker Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1996. He is the author of the Times bestsellers "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference," "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking," "Outliers: The Story of Success," and "What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures."
• Marc Klaas
  President, KlaasKids Foundation Marc Klaas is the head of the KlaasKids Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing crimes against children. It was founded in 1994, after the kidnapping and murder of his twelve-year- old daughter, Polly. In 2001, he co-founded BeyondMissing, which helps law enforcement distribute missing-child flyers.
• Martin Kemp
  Author; Emeritus Research Professor, Oxford University Martin Kemp is Emeritus Research Professor in the History of Art at Oxford University. He has written several books and curated major exhibitions on Leonardo da Vinci. His other books include "The Science of Art," "The Human Animal in Western Art and Science," and "Christ to Coke: How Image Becomes Icon," which will appear in November.
• Michael Specter
  Author; Staff Writer, The New Yorker Michael Specter has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1998. He is the author of "Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Harms the Planet and Threatens Our Lives."
• Nancy Pelosi
  Minority Leader, United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi is the first woman to serve as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Elected Speaker in 2007, she presided over the House’s passage of comprehensive health-insurance-reform legislation. In January, she became the minority leader, a position she held previously, from 2003 to 2007. She has been a member of the House since 1987 and represents California’s Eighth Congressional District.
• Nicole Krauss
  Author, "Great House" and "The History of Love" Nicole Krauss published her first novel, "Man Walks Into a Room," in 2002. Her second, "The History of Love," won the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Her most recent novel, "Great House," a National Book Award finalist, came out last year; an excerpt was included in the magazine’s "20 Under 40" series and anthology.
• Paul Noth
  Cartoonist, The New Yorker Paul Noth is a New Yorker cartoonist and the creator of "Pale Force," a series of animated shorts that aired on "Late Night with Conan O’Brien."
• Peter Schjeldahl
  Author; Art Critic, The New Yorker Peter Schjeldahl is The New Yorker’s art critic and the author of several books of criticism, including "The Hydrogen Jukebox: Selected Writings" and "Let’s See: Writings on Art from The New Yorker." He has received the Frank Jewett Mather Award from the College Art Association, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Clark Prize for Excellence in Arts Writing.
• Raffi Khatchadourian
  Staff Writer, The New Yorker Raffi Khatchadourian is a New Yorker staff writer whose recent subjects include the BP oil spill and the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. His first piece for the magazine, "Azzam the American," was nominated for a National Magazine Award.
• Rebecca Mead
  Staff Writer, The New Yorker Rebecca Mead is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of "One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding."
• Richard Dawkins
  Author; Evolutionary Biologist Richard Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist and the author of the Times best-selling books "The Selfish Gene," "The God Delusion," and "The Greatest Show on Earth." His new book, "The Magic of Reality," an illustrated science guide for adults and young people, comes out in October. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Society of Literature.
• Robert Baer
  Author; Former CIA Case Officer Robert Baer worked for the C.I.A. for twenty-one years, receiving the agency’s Career Intelligence Medal. He recounted his experiences in the Times best-selling books "Sleeping with the Devil" and "See No Evil," which was the basis of the film "Syriana." This March, he and his wife, Dayna Baer, published "The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story."
• Robert Mankoff
  Cartoonist, The New Yorker Robert Mankoff began drawing cartoons for The New Yorker in 1977 and became the magazine’s cartoon editor in 1997. He is the author of "The Naked Cartoonist: A New Way to Enhance Your Creativity."
• Stacy Schiff
  Pulitzer Prize-winning Columnist and Author Stacy Schiff is the author, most recently, of the Times best-seller "Cleopatra: A Life," and of "Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)," which won a Pulitzer Prize; "Saint-Exupéry," a Pulitzer Prize finalist; and "A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America," which won the George Washington Book Prize and the Ambassador Award in American Studies.
• Steve Martin
  American Actor, Writer, Comedian, and Musician Steve Martin has been contributing to The New Yorker since 1996. His books include "Pure Drivel," which collects many of his humor pieces from the magazine; the memoir "Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life"; and the novels "The Pleasure of My Company," "Shopgirl," and, most recently, "An Object of Beauty."
• T. Coraghessan Boyle
  Author, "World’s End" and "When the Killing’s Done" T. Coraghessan Boyle is the author of thirteen novels, including "World’s End," which won the PEN/Faulkner Award, and "When the Killing’s Done," which came out in February. He has published nine story collections, including "Tooth and Claw," whose title story appeared in The New Yorker and was included in "The Best American Short Stories 2004."
• The National
  Indie Rock Band The National was formed in Brooklyn in 1999 by the vocalist Matt Berninger and two pairs of brothers, Aaron and Bryce Dessner and Bryan and Scott Devendorf. Its eponymous début album came out in 2001, followed by "Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers," "Alligator," "Boxer," and, most recently, "High Violet."
• Wendell Steavenson
  Middle East Correspondant, The New Yorker Wendell Steavenson covered the revolution in Egypt for The New Yorker and has contributed pieces on Iraq and the former Soviet republic of Georgia. She is the author of "Stories I Stole" and "The Weight of a Mustard Seed: The Intimate Story of an Iraqi General and His Family During Thirty Years of Tyranny."
• William Oldham
  Author; Former New York Detective William Oldham spent more than two decades as a detective with the New York Police Department. In 2005, he exposed the collusion between two N.Y.P.D. cops and the New York Mafia. With Guy Lawson, he co-wrote a book about the case, "The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia."
• Willing Davidson
  Associate Fiction Editor, The New Yorker Willing Davidson is the associate fiction editor of The New Yorker.
• Zachary Kanin
  Author; Cartoonist, The New Yorker Zachary Kanin is a New Yorker cartoonist and the author and illustrator of "The Short Book."

Experience the best of the New Yorker Festival 2011.

Buy Programs

A New Yorker Night with The Moth

INCLUDES: New Yorker staff writer Michael Specter reminisces on his adventures in an attempt to interview hip-hop superstar Puff Daddy. Specter recalls Puff Daddy talking his boss at the New Yorker over a limousine phone, "We don't take reporters in, but when we do we go all the way."

length: 01:39:15 | views: 2,842 $9.95

The Dark Side: TC Boyle, Joyce C. Oates & George Saunders

INCLUDES: Accomplished fiction writer Joyce Carol Oates believes that stories of violence, dysfunction, and tragedy are simply misunderstood expressions of the human experience.

length: 01:24:23 | views: 1,583 $9.95

Peter Schjeldahl talks with Steve Martin

INCLUDES: New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl sits down with Steve Martin to discuss the merits of bad art. "You learn from good art that you can't do it," Schjeldahl says, "and from bad art you see where it breaks."

length: 01:17:57 | views: 2,691 $9.95

The Writer’s Writer: Eugenides, Krauss and Lahiri

INCLUDES: Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jeffrey Eugenides discusses the process of adapting a book into a film. A book "radically changes once it becomes visual. It's no longer a book, and to try to insist on it being a book will usually make it a poorer film."

length: 01:30:00 | views: 1,188 $9.95

Alternative Realities

INCLUDES: Noted authors Gary Shteyngart, Karen Russell, and Colson Whitehead discuss what first prompted them to include "elements of the fantastic" in their work.

length: 01:23:53 | views: 1,663 $9.95

Sleuths: Watching the Detectives

INCLUDES: Robert Baer shares the effects of his experience as an undercover CIA operative and whether the mission of national security justifies the personal sacrifice. Baer argues, "we can't be assassinating American citizens abroad without a court" but sees no way to avoid the espionage game.

length: 01:21:17 | views: 1,028 $9.95

Atul Gawande: Do Surgeons Need Coaches?

INCLUDES: Writer and surgeon Atul Gawande compares the "teaching" and "coaching" models of education. Even highly trained experts need coaching, he explains, if they want to achieve true mastery.

length: 01:32:34 | views: 2,544 $9.95

Jonathan Franzen Talks with David Remnick

INCLUDES: Jonathan Franzen, acclaimed author of The Corrections and Freedom, discusses taking a break from novels to write The Corrections series for HBO.

length: 01:26:04 | views: 5,628 $9.95

Geoff Dyer Talks with Rebecca Mead

INCLUDES: Author Geoff Dyer compares his tendency to digress in his writing to more straightforward approaches. In reference to his new book, Dyer says "the digressions in this are not digressions, they're actually integral to the unfolding of things."

length: 01:20:02 | views: 762 $9.95

Reporting From The Edge

INCLUDES: Journalist Dexter Filkins talks about his experience meeting a tribal warlord on the Pakistani-Afghan border. He explains that even though the warlord was purportedly being hunted by the Pakistani Army, his lack of concern about being caught revealed to Filkins the futility of the War on Terror.

length: 01:31:00 | views: 825 $9.95

Janet Malcolm Talks With Ian Frazier

INCLUDES: Ian Frazier of The New Yorker inquires into why Janet Malcolm is so good at portraying "nuts." When asked if she seeks literary models to portray actual people she says, "In Trevor Thomas' case…I immediately did think of that Borges story, The Aleph." "I used to write well," she laughs.

length: 01:26:10 | views: 1,207 $9.95

Richard Dawkins Talks with Henry Finder

INCLUDES: Biologist and author Richard Dawkins explains a thought experiment imagining every generation of ancestor back millions of years to show the gradual process of evolution and that there was no single point when homo erectus became homo sapien.

length: 01:35:57 | views: 20,301 $9.95

Capital Punishment

INCLUDES: Danalynn Recer, founder and executive director of the Gulf Region Advocacy Center, discusses accusations that race affects sentencing in death penalty cases. She suggests that while the prosecutors may not intentionally take race into account, death penalty cases are both symbolic and subjective, and issues of race inevitably factor in.

length: 01:27:56 | views: 1,399 $9.95

The National talks with Atul Gawande

INCLUDES: Brooklyn-based indie rock group The National perform the song 'Terrible Love' off their 2010 album High Violet at The New Yorker Festival 2011.

length: 01:32:19 | views: 2,777 $9.95

Nancy Pelosi talks with Jane Mayer

INCLUDES: Minority Leader of the House Nancy Pelosi discusses class warfare at The New Yorker Festival 2011. In response to a claim that "corporations are people, too," she counters, "Workers are people, too!"

length: 01:34:33 | views: 11,809 $9.95

The Cartoon Caption Game

INCLUDES: Robert Mankoff, cartoon editor for The New Yorker, discusses The Cartoon Caption Contest and it's lasting impression on popular culture. Mankoff compares the number of entrants vs. the number of winners and highlights the charm of the incredibly competitive contest.

length: 00:31:37 | views: 1,399 $9.95

Malcolm Gladwell: The Virtues of Obnoxiousness

INCLUDES: Author Malcolm Gladwell discusses the importance of creativity in addressing societal problems. America focuses mainly on the severity of a punishment, he notes, while neglecting that deterrence is also affected by the certainty of getting caught and how quickly punishment takes place.

length: 01:25:00 | views: 8,442 $9.95

Rebecca Mead: "Middlemarch" and Me

INCLUDES: Rebecca Mead, staff writer for The New Yorker, examines the George Eliot-attributed quote, "It's never too late to be what you might have been." Disagreeing with the quotation, Mead notes that doors closed behind her as she entered middle age. "Recognizing that it was too late to be some of the things I might have been, says Mead, "seemed part of what it was to grow older and wiser."

length: 01:14:52 | views: 1,768 $9.95

James Surowiecki: Out of Our Control

INCLUDES: James Suroweicki discusses a "dramatic difference" between service industries where principal-agent conflicts are pervasive, and industries focused on manufactured goods. In the former, Surowiecki notes, agents are becoming extremely wealthy; in the latter, consumers are "spending less and getting more."

length: 01:30:20 | views: 1,606 $9.95

Experience the best of the New Yorker Festival 2011.

FREE PREVIEWS

Strip Clubs and Martha Stewart: A Night with Puff Daddy

New Yorker staff writer Michael Specter reminisces on his adventures in an attempt to interview hip-hop superstar Puff Daddy. Specter recalls Puff Daddy talking his boss at The New Yorker over a limousine phone, "We don't take reporters in, but when we do we go all the way."

views: 2,842

Joyce Carol Oates: Writers Are Nice, But Not Sensitive

Accomplished fiction writer Joyce Carol Oates believes that stories of violence, dysfunction, and tragedy are simply misunderstood expressions of the human experience.

views: 1,583

Peter Schjeldahl: Diet of Masterpieces Makes You Fat

New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl sits down with Steve Martin to discuss the merits of bad art. "You learn from good art that you can't do it," Schjeldahl says, "and from bad art you see where it breaks."

views: 2,691

Jeffrey Eugenides: What Makes a Good Film Adaptation?

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jeffrey Eugenides discusses the process of adapting a book into a film. A book "radically changes once it becomes visual. It's no longer a book, and to try to insist on it being a book will usually make it a poorer film."

length: 12:12:12 | views: 1,188 $9.95

The First Steps to Fantasy: Drugs, Soda and Stephen King

Noted authors Gary Shteyngart, Karen Russell, and Colson Whitehead discuss what first prompted them to include "elements of the fantastic" in their work.

views: 1,663

Undercover Espionage: Do the Ends Justify the Means?

Robert Baer shares the effects of his experience as an undercover CIA operative and whether the mission of national security justifies the personal sacrifice. Baer argues, "we can't be assassinating American citizens abroad without a court" but sees no way to avoid the espionage game.

views: 1,028

Atul Gawande: Coaching and the Four Stages of Mastery

Writer and surgeon Atul Gawande compares the "teaching" and "coaching" models of education. Even highly trained experts need coaching, he explains, if they want to achieve true mastery.

views: 2,544

Franzen Announces He Is Writing 'The Corrections' for HBO

Jonathan Franzen, acclaimed author of The Corrections and Freedom, discusses taking a break from novels to write The Corrections series for HBO.

views: 5,628

Geoff Dyer: Digressive Writing Styles

Author Geoff Dyer compares his tendency to digress in his writing to more straightforward approaches. In reference to his new book, Dyer says "the digressions in this are not digressions, they're actually integral to the unfolding of things."

views: 762

Revealing Theatrics in the War on Terror

Journalist Dexter Filkins talks about his experience meeting a tribal warlord on the Pakistani-Afghan border. He explains that even though the warlord was purportedly being hunted by the Pakistani Army, his lack of concern about being caught revealed to Filkins the futility of the War on Terror.

views: 825

Janet Malcolm on Lost Souls and Delusional People

Ian Frazier of The New Yorker inquires into why Janet Malcolm is so good at portraying "nuts." When asked if she seeks literary models to portray actual people she says, "In Trevor Thomas' case…I immediately did think of that Borges story, The Aleph." "I used to write well," she laughs.

views: 1,207

Richard Dawkins: There Never Was a First Homo Sapiens

Biologist and author Richard Dawkins explains a thought experiment imagining every generation of ancestor back millions of years to show the gradual process of evolution and that there was no single point when homo erectus became homo sapien.

views: 20,301

Is Capital Punishment Color Blind?

Danalynn Recer, founder and executive director of the Gulf Region Advocacy Center, discusses accusations that race affects sentencing in death penalty cases. She suggests that while the prosecutors may not intentionally take race into account, death penalty cases are both symbolic and subjective, and issues of race inevitably factor in.

views: 1,399

The National Perform 'Terrible Love'

Brooklyn-based indie rock group The National perform the song 'Terrible Love' off their 2010 album High Violet at The New Yorker Festival 2011.

views: 2,777

Nancy Pelosi: 'Workers Are People, Too'

Minority Leader of the House Nancy Pelosi discusses class warfare at The New Yorker Festival 2011. In response to a claim that "corporations are people, too," she counters, "Workers are people, too!"

views: 11,809

What Are Your Chances of Winning the Caption Contest?

Robert Mankoff, cartoon editor for The New Yorker, discusses The Cartoon Caption Contest and it's lasting impression on popular culture. Mankoff compares the number of entrants vs. the number of winners and highlights the charm of the incredibly competitive contest.

views: 1,399

Gladwell: Creative Solutions to Improve Behavior

Author Malcolm Gladwell discusses the importance of creativity in addressing societal problems. America focuses mainly on the severity of a punishment, he notes, while neglecting that deterrence is also affected by the certainty of getting caught and how quickly punishment takes place.

views: 8,442

Is It Ever Too Late to Be What You Might Have Been?

Rebecca Mead, staff writer for The New Yorker, examines the George Eliot-attributed quote, "It's never too late to be what you might have been." Disagreeing with the quotation, Mead notes that doors closed behind her as she entered middle age. "Recognizing that it was too late to be some of the things I might have been, says Mead, "seemed part of what it was to grow older and wiser."

views: 1,768

Why Wall Street's Imploding and Main Street's Improving

James Suroweicki discusses a "dramatic difference" between service industries where principal-agent conflicts are pervasive, and industries focused on manufactured goods. In the former, Surowiecki notes, agents are becoming extremely wealthy; in the latter, consumers are "spending less and getting more."

views: 1,606

Experience the best of the New Yorker Festival 2011.

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Experience the best of the New Yorker Festival 2011.

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