92NY Talks

Adam Phillips with Jamieson Webster: The Life You Want

Adam Phillips, the foremost psychoanalytic writer of our time, joins renowned psychoanalyst and critic Jamieson Webster for a conversation about necessity, desire, and reimagining our lives — and Phillips' new book, The Life You Want. What do we really want from our lives — and what gets in the way? In The Life You Want, the beloved psychoanalyst and essayist Adam Phillips turns his attention to that deceptively simple question with curiosity, wit, and intellectual imagination. Phillips has long been a rare figure: a thinker who writes about desire, ambition, boredom, freedom, and frustration in ways that feel less like instruction and more like permission — to think differently, to be kinder to ourselves, to stay curious about our own contradictions. In The Life You Want, he asks what it might mean to stop chasing the lives we think we're supposed to want, and instead pay closer attention to the lives we're actually living. Whether you're deeply interested in psychoanalysis or simply curious about how to live with honesty and imagination, join Phillips and Webster as they explore the personal and political dimensions of want, need, and pleasure — and how they can determine the course of our lives.

From The Archives: Neil deGrasse Tyson and Alan Alda — Science and Communication

What does it mean to be a true communicator? Two of the best, Academy Award-nominated actor Alan Alda and astrophysicist and science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson discuss Alda's book, If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? It's a guide to improving the way we relate to each other using improv games, storytelling, acting, empathy, science and our own innate abilities.

The World of Fake Values: Garry Kasparov with Bret Stephens

Few public intellectuals have anticipated the shape of the present moment with such prescience as Garry Kasparov. In a major live conversation, Kasparov joins Bret Stephens to discuss his bracing new book, The World of Fake Values: Ukraine Under Fire, A.I. Amok, and the Putinization of America Under Donald Trump. A former world chess champion who gave up the game at the height of his power to confront Vladimir Putin's authoritarian rise, Kasparov has spent decades thinking about how democracies fail – and how they might be saved. Drawing on fresh reporting, recent essays, and conversations with thinkers ranging from A.I. researchers to Ukrainian dissidents, he argues that today's political chaos follows a grim internal logic: the hollowing out of democratic values, the weaponization of technology, and the normalization of authoritarian tactics in plain sight. In conversation with New York Times opinion columnist Bret Stephens, Kasparov examines why Ukraine matters to Americans, what artificial intelligence reveals about human judgment, and whether a democratic majority can still reclaim moral and political ground. Urgent, clear-eyed, and deeply informed, this is a conversation about power, values, and what comes next.

Marc Shaiman with Nathan Lane: Never Mind the Happy — Showbiz Stories from a Sore Winner

Award-winning composer and co-lyricist Marc Shaiman (Hairspray, Sister Act, Smash and many others) joins fellow Tony Award winner Nathan Lane for a look behind the curtain of life on Broadway, in Hollywood and on Television, with a conversation about Shaiman's new memoir, Never Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories from a Sore Winner. Emerging from community theater in his teens, sparking a decades-long collaboration with Bette Midler in the '70s, surviving the AIDS crisis of the '80s and bursting into Hollywood and Broadway glory, Marc Shaiman has spent 50 years making some of the most beloved musicals and film scores of our era. Hilarious and deeply human, Shaiman's story is a tribute to the power of music and the pull of the spotlight. Join him with his longtime pal Nathan Lane — a decades-long musical friendship — for a candid, uproariously fun evening of backstage stories from a shared life in show business, on and offstage.

Maggie Haberman and Alex Burns with Jeff Greenfield: American Politics 2026

Pulitzer Prize-winning The New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman and Politico's Alex Burns return with moderator Jeff Greenfield for an illuminating conversation about Donald Trump and what lies on the horizon of American politics ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. How far will Donald Trump go to crack down on immigration? Are fissures beginning to show in the MAGA coalition? Will Democrats find their footing to push back against Trump's reshaping of the American order? The coming midterm elections stand to be supremely consequential — and for the eighth time on our stage, 92NY favorites Maggie Haberman and Alex Burns return with political analyst Jeff Greenfield to offer unparalleled insight into this new era. Covering the arc of Trump's rise for over a decade, Haberman and Burns shed new light on our political history in real time. Don't miss this dynamic duo in their sixth appearance with Jeff Greenfield at 92NY — a conversation about a crucial moment in America, what it means for the balance of power in Washington, and the political forces that will determine our future. They will also discuss the high stakes war with Iran, American divisions, and what's next.