Dan Savage celebrates and reflects as Savage Love turns 30

Speakers Forum

A man, a plan, a sex advice column and 'Savage Love A-Z'

‘Every building is a philosophy in a way. I see all buildings as attempts to try to figure out and express what it means to dwell as a human being on Earth.’

A search for meaning in Minoru Yamasaki's life and architecture

‘The land knows you, even when you are lost.’

A Native American scientist on ‘the question of our time'

‘What do we owe in death? What do we owe to our parents?’

Kat Chow examines the long life of grief in 'Seeing Ghosts'

‘A Little Book of Self-Care for Those Who Grieve began as notes scratched out over many midnights; thoughts formed as I lay sleepless, or in the aftermath of painful dreams.’

‘Weep. Scream. Hate. Disbelieve. Go numb. Breathe.’ Hard-earned lessons about loss and grief

‘The agents say they’ll put themselves between a bullet and the president. They’ll take a bullet for the president. Well, they felt like more and more they were just dodging a bullet.’

Chinks in the armor: An investigative call to reform the Secret Service

‘If people hear something that’s false, and they’re immediately told it’s false, then they will remember it in some sense or in some part of their mind as true for the long-term. That’s insidious!’

Lies, the First Amendment, and the limits of free speech

As a teen, Chinese American author Anna Qu was forced by her mother to work in their family's garment factory in Queens, New York. At home she was the family’s maid, and faced punishment for doing things like schoolwork. Qu contacted Child Protective Services to report her mother, but due to bureaucratic bumbling she was left her to fend for herself. Now as an adult, Qu reckons with life, family, and not so easy answers to past trauma in her memoir.

Anna Qu’s fierce memoir grapples with child labor, immigration, and love

Social Distancing may be drawing to a close, but that doesn’t mean folks are eager to come together just yet. The potential unity among Americans, involving civil civic discourse, continues to prove a bumpy road, to say the least. But according to the speakers in this talk, it’s a journey still worth committing to, having ‘faith’ in, and suffering through, together.

Civic Saturday aims to rekindle our faith in civic discourse

It has been just over six years since the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling. In his new, exhaustively researched book The Engagement: America’s Quarter-Century Struggle Over Same-Sex Marriage, author Sasha Issenberg shares many of the stories and successful strategies that led to marriage equality.

Sasha Issenberg tells the surprising story of how marriage equality was won

‘Nothing should be lost. Everything has a purpose. Everything is in need of care.’

Ecologist Suzanne Simard’s life work is highlighted in ‘The Mother Tree’

In his new book After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made, author Ben Rhodes grapples with the dissolving notion of American exceptionalism in a post-Covid world. Using a global lens, Rhodes presents a glimpse of a highly possible democracy-free future, presently modeled by countries like Hungary, Russia, and China.

A democracy worth saving: Author Ben Rhodes on the rise of global nationalism

Make Love Not Porn founder Cindy Gallop says the future of pornography is "social sex" and the end of fetishizing women of color.

'Shame changer': Sex tech CEO disrupts Asian stereotypes with adult films

Author Grace M. Cho breaks bread with the numerous voices haunting her ‘pained spirit’ in her new novel.

'The ingredients for madness': Author Grace M. Cho’s memoir on colonialism, food, and love

White Freedom: ‘The belief (and practice) that freedom is central to white racial identity, and that only white people can or should be free.’

Liberty’s white roots and the racial history of that idea

Readings, debates, lectures from around Seattle, and so much more. Hear fascinating talks by authors, intellectuals, officials and regular folks with important stories recorded live.

hubhopper

Speakers Forum

hubhopper