Litquake 2024

Co-presented with 48 Hills and KALW

On the eve of this year’s hugely consequential presidential election, award-winning journalist Paola Ramos sheds light on a misunderstood and underestimated electorate: the growing number of Latino voters supporting conservative candidates and policies. Using a combination of deep reporting, effective storytelling, and probing yet compassionate questions, Ramos unpacks the combination of race, identity, and political trauma that has shaped this rightward shift—and urges politicians and activists alike not to ignore the power of this group to shape American politics. Noted Bay Area journalist and interviewer Angie Coiro will join Ramos for this critical conversation. FREE, $10–15 suggested donation.

Book sales for this event coordinated by Bookshop West Portal

Co-presented with 48 Hills and KALW

Join journalist Alison Owings and Del Seymour, who overcame 18 years of homelessness and addiction to become one of the most respected advocates in San Francisco, as they slip behind the cold statistics and sensationalism. Mayor of Tenderloin reveals a harrowing and life-affirming portrait of Seymour, who, once housed and sober, started Tenderloin Walking Tours and later Code Tenderloin, the remarkable organization teaching homeless, recovering addicts, sex workers, dealers, ex-felons, and other marginalized people how to get and keep a job. Special performance inspired by Del’s advocacy and life by Skywatchers, the multi-disciplinary, mixed-ability ensemble that creates work amplifying the Tenderloin neighborhood’s stories. FREE, $10-15 suggested donation

Book sales for this event coordinated by Medicine for Nightmares.

Co-presented with Gray Area with 48 Hills

Disinformation. Propaganda. Artificial intelligence. PSYOPS. Litquake brings together three thinkers to illuminate how the American mind has been gamified by bad actors, creating an invisible battlefield where our democratic future is at stake. In Stories Are Weapons, bestselling author Annalee Newitz delves into America’s deep-rooted history of PSYOPS, from Benjamin Franklin’s Revolutionary War–era fake newspaper to 21st-century culture warriors, transforming democratic debates into toxic wars over American identity. In Playing With Reality, Kelly Clancy chronicles the riveting and hidden history of games from the Enlightenment to now, where games inform our daily lives: the social media and technology that can warp our preferences, polarize us, and manufacture our desires. MacArthur-winning artist and author Trevor Paglen’s work often delves into state secrecy and mass surveillance through the lens of games, image-making, investigative journalism, and numerous other disciplines. Panel moderated by Mother Jones senior reporter and producer for Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, Michael Montgomery. $10

Book sales for this event coordinated by Dog Eared Books.

Co-presented with Jewish Community Center San Francisco 

From the curious minds of Atlas Obscura, authors of #1 New York Times bestselling Atlas Obscura and Gastro Obscura, comes an unputdownable celebration of the world's living wonders. Join editor Cara Giaimo and Marissa Ortega-Welch, environmental journalist and podcaster of How Wild, as we learn how dung beetles navigate by the stars and trees communicate through their roots. Pay your respects to a 44,000 year old shrub. Hear stories of the wild world’s human protectors: a honey hunter and his avian partners, a scientist working to find the world's only ocean-dwelling insects, and an offshore radio DJ who is at the heart of the local fishing community. Teeming with detail and wildly entertaining, Wild Life reinvigorates our sense of wonder about the incredible creatures with whom we share our plane. Moderated by Oakland Zoo's Amy Gotliffe. Doors at 6:30PM. $17 adv (book bundle avail.) / $20 door

“It makes me want to run upstairs, pack a bag, and bolt away to some far-flung corner of this astounding planet.” —Mary Roach, bestselling author of Stiff and Packing for Mars

Book sales for this event coordinated by Bookshop West Portal. 

Co-presented with Jewish Community Center San Francisco

Bang Bang, Niner Gang! From award-winning SF Chronicle journalist Mike Silver comes the inside story of the brilliant, hypercompetitive young NFL coaches who threw out decades of received wisdom to fundamentally remake America’s most popular sport. When Kyle Shanahan became the NFL’s youngest offensive coordinator in 2008, he had one prevailing rule: Tell me the why. If a colleague couldn’t justify his position by providing the unassailable reasoning behind it, he was told to get the hell out of Shanahan’s office. Shanahan and the members of his coaching tree—Sean McVay, Mike McDaniel, Raheem Morris, and Matt LaFleur—are now NFL stars and coaching revolutionaries. With The Why Is Everything, Silver draws on unmatched access across the league to take us into the key moments of how it all happened, and in the process gives us a timeless account of friendship, rivalry, and the never-ending pursuit of perfection. Silver will be in convo with 49ers legend Steve Young. Doors at 6:30PM. $17 adv (book bundle avail.) / $20 door
Book sales for this event coordinated by Bookshop West Portal.

Co-presented with Mechanics’ Institute Library

Sportswriter Melissa Ludtke's debut memoir Locker Room Talk: A Woman's Struggle to Get Inside follows her time reporting for Sports Illustrated, being kicked out of the Yankees’ locker room, and the subsequent Supreme Court case that affirmed her equal rights. The ruling in Ludtke v. Kuhn opened up doors for generations of women in sports media. In conversation with San Francisco Chronicle's sports columnist Ann Killion. $7.18 for MI members / $17.85 for nonmembers
Book sales for this event coordinated by Book Passage.