LFPL's At the Library Series

James Fallows is a national correspondent for The Atlantic. He, and his wife Deborah Fallows, are the authors of the forthcoming book, Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America, a vivid portrait of the civic and economic reinvention taking place in America, town by town and generally out of view of the national media.Traveling across America in a single-engine prop airplane, the Fallowses have visited dozens of towns—meeting hundreds of civic leaders, workers, immigrants, educators, environmentalists, artists, public servants, librarians, business people, city planners, students, and entrepreneurs—to take the pulse and understand the prospects of American towns from coast to coast. The book includes a chapter on Louisville and focuses on GE's FirstBuild “microfactory.”

From bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator Peter Brown comes The Wild Robot Escapes, a heartwarming and action-packed sequel to his New York Times bestseller The Wild Robot, about what happens when nature and technology collide. Brown is the 2013 Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator of Creepy Carrots! and his other children's books—including The Curious Garden, Children Make Terrible Pets, and Mr. Tiger Goes Wild—are all New York Times bestsellers.

Former special advisor and press secretary to President Ronald Reagan, Mark Weinberg, shares an intimate, behind-the-scenes look inside the Reagan presidency—told through the movies they watched together every week at Camp David. Movie Nights with the Reagans is a nostalgic journey through the 1980s and its most iconic films, seen through the eyes of one of Hollywood’s former stars: one who was simultaneously transforming the Republican Party, the American economy, and the course of the Cold War.

Bruce Katz 3-13-2018A look at "how cities can thrive in the age of populism" with author Bruce Katz and Mayor Greg FischerPower is shifting in the world: downward from national governments and states, to cities and metropolitan communities; horizontally to networks of public, private, and civic actors; and globally through capital, trade, and innovation. In the new book, The New Localism, co-author and urban expert at the Brookings Institution Bruce Katz reveals how cities are emerging, by necessity, to solve the big challenges of modern society.Join author Bruce Katz, Mayor Greg Fischer, and moderator Jean West for a discussion of The New Localism and how cities like Louisville are working to address our country's most serious social, economic, and environmental challenges.Download the New Localism presentation from our website at lfpl.org/podcast.html

Women in Four Traditions: Journey Toward WholenessWomen in Four Traditions: Journey Toward Wholeness is a forum featuring four female religious leaders—Dr. Riffat Hassan (Islam), Sister Mary Huber (Christianity), Dr. Marcia Segal (Judaism), and Rev. C.J. Wright (Native American tradition)—as they identify some of the greatest challenges women face in their respective religious traditions and explore how positive teachings can be used to overcome challenges due to societal injustice and oppression. Presented in partnership with the Salaam Network is an interfaith group committed to building bridges of understanding from knowledge.

Psychologist and author Guy Winch Guy Winch is a licensed psychologist, author, and keynote speaker. His TED Talk, "Why We All Need to Practice Emotional First Aid," has been viewed over 5 million times. Winch's latest book, How to Fix a Broken Heart, focuses on two types of emotional pain that are often marginalized—romantic heartbreak and the heartbreak that results from the loss of a cherished pet—and reveals how these two grief experiences impact our brain and our behavior, and the steps we can take to take control of our lives, heal, and move on.

How to Tame a Fox and Build a Dog with Dr. Lee DugatkinUniversity of Louisville professor and author Lee Dugatkin shares the fascinating story of the science, politics, adventure, and love behind the research of a dedicated team of researchers in Siberia domesticating silver foxes to study the evolution of the dog in real time.Dr. Lee Dugatkin is a professor and university scholar in the biology department at UofL.

Maybe you know it as a classic of opera comedy or maybe you know it thanks to a Bugs Bunny cartoon, but either way, The Barber of Seville is a crowd-pleasing favorite. This comedy tells of a count, his love, and the clever barber whose mistakes and successes lead the characters on a merry romp. Join conductor Robert Tweten as he describes what it's like to musically manage Rossini's one and only Figaro.

Carmichael's Kids, in partnership with the Louisville Free Public Library, are excited to welcome Newbery Honor Award winner Ann M. Martin to the Main Library. Martin is the New York Times-bestselling author of Rain Reign and many other award-winning novels, including the much-loved Baby-Sitters Club series. In her novel Rain Reign, Martin tells the story of Rose, a girl struggling with Asperger's syndrome, and the bond she shares with her beloved dog, Rain.

From award-winning author Nate Blakeslee comes the gripping true story of the rise and reign of O-Six, the celebrated Yellowstone wolf, and the people who loved and feared her. American Wolf: A True Story Of Survival And Obsession In The West is a riveting multigenerational saga of hardship and triumph that tells a larger story about the ongoing culture clash in the West - between those fighting for a vanishing way of life and those committed to restoring one of the country's most iconic landscapes.

Blaine Harden has served as The Washington Post's bureau chief in Northeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa. He was a national correspondent for The New York Times and has contributed to The Economist, PBS Frontline, Time, and Foreign Policy. His latest book, King of Spies, tells the gripping account of the most powerful American spy you've never heard of, whose role at the center of the Korean War—which gave rise to the North Korean regime— is essential to understanding one of the most intractable foreign policy conflicts of our time.

Kentucky Opera Lecture Series: Dead Man Walking with author Sister Helen Prejean and composer Jake HeggieFaith. Justice. Redemption. These may be familiar operatic themes, but Dead Man Walking is no ordinary opera: the story revolves around a nun and her journey to advise a condemned prisoner on death row. Set in contemporary Louisiana, the opera is based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Sister Helen Prejean and composed by Jake Heggie.Join special guests Principal Conductor Joseph Mechavich and Ellen Douglas Schlaefer, Director of Opera Studies for the University of South Carolina, and composer Jake Heggie for a discussion about opera, redemption, and the criminal justice system. Ian Derrer, General Director of Kentucky Opera, serves as moderator.This lecture is the second of a three-part series with the Kentucky Opera.

The UofL Center for Asian Democracy and the World Affairs Council of Kentucky and Southern Indiana and the Louisville Free Public Library presentSuki Kim - Undercover in North Korea2017 Annual Lecture in Asian DemocracySuki Kim is the New York Times bestselling author of Without You, There Is No Us. The book chronicles the six months Kim spent teaching English to the 19-year-old sons of North Korea's ruling class at a brand-new university staffed only by foreigners. She is the only writer to go undercover in North Korea to investigate and write a book from the inside. In this talk, Kim offers an unprecedented and surprisingly moving look into the day-to-day machinations of North Korea's totalitarian regime through the lens of her own remarkable experiences.Moderated by Mark Hebert.

Phi Beta Kappa of Kentuckiana presents Louisville to the White House with Jerry AbramsonJoin Jerry Abramson for his story of how a Seneca High School grad who grew up working at his family's three-aisle grocery store in the Smoketown neighborhood committed his life to public service. He will share experiences from serving for over two decades as Mayor of the "old" City of Louisville and the first Mayor of the "Newly Expanded" City of Louisville; as Lt. Governor of Kentucky with Governor Steve Beshear; and as a member of President Obama's Senior Staff in the West Wing of the White House.

New York Times bestselling author and journalist Jonathan EigLFPL is pleased to welcome back Jonathan Eig as part of the Craig Buthod Author Series. His latest book, Ali: A Life, has been lauded as the most comprehensive and definitive biography of Muhammad Ali that has ever been published.Ken Burns calls Jonathan Eig "a master storyteller" and Eig's books have been listed among the best books of the year by The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Sports Illustrated. Join him for a discussion about the extraordinary life of Louisville's native son.

Award-winning journalist and former Beijing and Washington Bureau Chief for the Financial Times Richard McGregorThe confrontational course on which China and Japan are set is no simple spat between neighbors and the fallout could cause an economic tsunami affecting manufacturing centers, trade routes, and political capitals on every continent. Richard McGregor's latest book, Asia's Reckoning, takes us behind the headlines to show how American power will stand or fall on its ability to hold its ground in Asia.

Join beloved children's author Deborah Diesen for a discussion of her latest work: The Pout-Pout Fish and the Bully Bully Shark.

This Kentucky Opera Lecture Series features UofL professor and archaeologist John Hale discussing Ariadne auf Naxos and the mythology that forms the basis of Strauss' classic opera.Download Dr. Hale's presentation at lfpl.org/podcast.html

An Evening with Kentucky Poet Laureate Frederick Smock

Join Duke University professor Edward Balleisen - author of Fraud: An American History from Barnum to Madoff - for a lively conversation about America's con artists, crooks, and cheats. He is joined by consumer rights attorney Stephanie Willis; Benjamin Long, the head of the Office of Consumer Protection in the Kentucky Attorney General's office; and University of Louisville professor of history Thomas Mackey.