322. Oliver Burkeman: Meditations for Mortals
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Release Date: 11/18/2025
327. Julian Brave NoiseCat with Joshua L. Reid: We Survived the Night
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
In his debut book We Survived the Night, artist and writer Julian Brave NoiseCat takes readers on a complex journey of Indigenous experience stemming from a childhood rich with culture and contradictions. Reeling from his father — a Secwépemc and St’at’imc artist haunted by a troubled past — abandoning his family, NoiseCat and his non-Native mother found themselves embraced and invigorated by their community. Supported by the urban Native population in Oakland, California and family on the Canim Lake Indian Reserve in British Columbia, NoiseCat was able to...
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326. Raina Telgemeier & Scott McCloud: The Cartoonists Club
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
If you’re into comics and graphic novels, you probably know of Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud. Telgemeier rose to “first-name-only status” among middle-grade readers with her adaptations of The Babysitters Club and award-winning autobiographical graphic novels including Smile and Guts. Scott McCloud is a leading comics theorist, having spoken and written about the art form since the 1980s. In fact, Telgemeier credits McCloud’s work for inspiring her when she was a teenager. Now these two leading artists come together to discuss the unique power of comics...
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325. Joe Hill: King Sorrow: A Novel
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Arthur Oakes spends his days in a picturesque tableau of scholastic life – reading in the exceptional Rackham College library, dreaming against scenic Maine backdrops, entertaining a burgeoning romance with bold and brainy Gwen Underfoot. What more could a studious kid want? Surely not to be roped into a criminal endeavor by a local drug dealer and her partner, bent on committing a truly atrocious crime against the law and academia itself – stealing rare books from the college library. In his attempts to escape the dangers stacked against him, Arthur turns down a dark and unforeseen path...
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324. Emily Baker-White with Steve Scher: The War Over TikTok
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
You’re likely aware of the ongoing saga surrounding the ban on TikTok in the U.S., including the platform’s brief offline period in January 2025. Have you ever wondered why restoring TikTok in the U.S. was one of the first actions President Trump took when he came to office? Why is this social media platform a top priority for some of the world’s most powerful people? How did this tech giant become so wildly popular and a source of contention in international politics? Author of Every Screen on the Planet, Emily Baker-White, uncovers the answers. After working within big tech...
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323. Irish Arts & Literature Showcase: Celebrate Contemporary Irish Art and Literature
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
The Seattle Athenaeum and Town Hall Seattle welcomes Dr. Audrey Whitty, Director of the National Library of Ireland and Hibsen as they launch the inaugural Irish Arts & Literature Showcase. Dr. Whitty is in conversation with UW Teaching Professor and poet Frances McCue. Dr. Audrey Whitty is an Irish archaeologist, librarian and curator. As Director of the National Library of Ireland, she oversees the work of the library in collecting, protecting and making accessible the recorded memory of Ireland. Whitty previously worked for the National Museum of Ireland (NMI) where she...
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322. Oliver Burkeman: Meditations for Mortals
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
You know that phrase, “We compare our insides to other people’s outsides”? We’re bombarded with others’ achievements but see less of the steps – internal and external – it took to get there. These days, we feel an increased pressure to achieve, to pursue greatness. We reach for this mythical, impossible standard. Drawing from his book, Meditations for Mortals, Burkeman believes that if you accept the fact that you will never “get there,” you can actually start making good choices that lead to a meaningful life. Through this guiding philosophy, Burkeman calls...
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321. As Many Weirdos As Possible: Celebrating the Pacific Northwest Music Scene (1985-1995)
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Join us at Town Hall Seattle for As Many Weirdos As Possible (AMWAP), an evening of storytelling and portraiture that brings to life one of the most vibrant chapters of the Pacific Northwest music scene (1985-1995). This live program will feature musicians, artists, and community members sharing personal memories, projected alongside their documentary portraits as part of the ongoing AMWAP project. Drawn from Poser Productions’ mission to preserve and celebrate personal and cultural histories, this evening invites audiences to engage in a communal reflection on memory, music, identity, and...
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320. Jimmy Wales with Mónica Guzmán: The Seven Rules of Trust
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
As we interact with endless sources of media and news every day, we tend to recognize the big names presenting to us and often have an opinion at the ready in terms of credibility and preference. But why did we develop those opinions in the first place, and how do we move forward with confidence when processing the continuous supply of new information gets more challenging all the time? According to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, it all comes down to something innately human and critical to our collective success– trust. In his upcoming book The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for...
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Our Brains on Art: How the Arts Transform Community Health: A Conversation with Susan Magsamen
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Can art transform our brains for the better? Local arts and health champion, Path with Art, in partnership with Seattle University and Town Hall Seattle, leads a conversation with Susan Magsamen, New York Times bestselling co-author of Your Brain on Art, and director of Johns Hopkins International Arts + Mind Lab, as well as the co-director of the Aspen Institute’s Neuroarts Blueprint. Susan shares the latest research demonstrating how individual and public health can be transformed through the arts. When introduced in healing settings, arts engagement is associated with a...
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318. Dr. Wendy Johnson with Tessa Hulls: Connection as the Way to Wellness
Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series
Do you live in a way that maximizes your well-being? Chances are, the answer to that question is no. Our modern way of living, some suggest, is incompatible with a thriving lifestyle. While the notion that many factors impact our overall health and wellness is not necessarily far-fetched, you may be surprised by the argument that some of the strongest factors are relational — both with one another and with the earth. Family Physician and public health professor Dr. Wendy Johnson explores this concept in her newest book, Kinship Medicine: Cultivating Interdependence to Heal the Earth...
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You know that phrase, “We compare our insides to other people’s outsides”? We’re bombarded with others’ achievements but see less of the steps – internal and external – it took to get there. These days, we feel an increased pressure to achieve, to pursue greatness. We reach for this mythical, impossible standard. Drawing from his book, Meditations for Mortals, Burkeman believes that if you accept the fact that you will never “get there,” you can actually start making good choices that lead to a meaningful life.
Through this guiding philosophy, Burkeman calls “imperfectionism,” we can tackle challenges in our daily lives: our finite time, the lure of distraction, the impossibility of doing anything perfectly, the feeling that the world is spinning out of control. How can we embrace our limitations? Or make good decisions when there’s always too much to do? How do we shed the illusion that life will really begin as soon as we can “get on top of everything”? Pulling from the fields of philosophy, religion, literature, psychology, and self-help, Burkeman explores a combination of practical tools and daily shifts in perspective.
Burkeman offers a way to embrace our mortality, to in fact find solace and inspiration in it. In anxiety-inducing times, Burkeman believes that holding back in life is a guarantee for anguish, while living in just one moment at a time is the solution for getting to the things that matter most to you.
Oliver Burkeman worked for many years at The Guardian, where he wrote a popular weekly column on psychology, “This Column Will Change Your Life.” His books include the New York Times bestseller Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals and The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking.
