Dedicated with Doug Brunt

Lili Anolik: gimlet (2 1/2 ounces gin, squeezed lime juice, sugar)Lili shares some of the scoop from her terrific biography DIDION & BABITZ including Harrison Ford supplying drugs to much of the 1960s Los Angeles literary scene, Steve Martin's slightly awkward early romantic life, sex with Jim Morrison and Jackson Browne. She also discusses how we can come to understand the identity of a decade retroactively, why some writers continue to be read for many decades while others fade from popularity and that this phenomenon has more to do with circumstances rather than being a final judgement on the quality of the writing, and reveals who would be a terrific actor to play Eve Babitz in film.

Neal Stephenson: mezcal margarita (2 ounces mezcal, 1 ounce Cointreau, lime juice) Neal identifies the two greatest threats to the future of humanity, the most compelling inflection points for alternative history, his process for writing his novels (and shares that he writes by hand), the best sci fi book ever written, the best sci fi movie ever made, and discusses a new philosophy he’s started to practice that could save the world.

Maureen Callahan: vodka martini (3 ounces vodka, 1/2 ounce dry vermouth, olives)Maureen names the four worst hypocrites in the world today then we debate the world champion from this Final Four (with a special honorable mention), discusses her first job at MTV, describes what it was like to encounter one of the subjects of her “vitriolic” columns at an event in NYC, mentions some shocking facts from her book ASK NOT that have gone unreported about the Kennedy family, and reflects on the debate over “nature v nurture” with regard to both the Kennedy Inheritance and her own family.

Ken Burns: green teaKen names the three people from history that he’d invite to dinner, discusses the responsibility of a documentary filmmaker to remain factual and objective- and how this responsibility is often violated, offers a humanizing view of Hemingway, reflects on the many qualities of da Vinci that have made him a titan among titans through the ages, reveals his process for creating his films.