As many of you know, Richard Dawkins has written the first part of a two-part autobiography, An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist, which will go on sale September 24. I have a prepublication copy, and if you have any interest in Richard or his science (a lot of it is about science), I recommend the book highly. This first volume goes up to the publication of The Selfish Gene in 1976, and volume 2, continuing up to the present, will be out in two years or so.
Richard will be appearing here in Chicago (Evanston, actually) on October 3 at the Pick-Staiger Concert Hall at 7 p.m. There are links with details here and here, and I’m not sure whether there’s an entrance fee (I doubt it). I’ll be interviewing Richard about the book—and other stuff—onstage for about 45 minutes, and then he’ll have Q&A with the audience. It should be great fun, and I’ll try to think up some good questions.
This is part of a national book tour covering cities from New York to California, and you can see the schedule here.
Just a note that you should keep your eye on the Chicago links, as tickets, whether free or not, are sure to go fast. Right now they haven’t said anything about how to reserve seats.
I’d love to see you and Richard together on stage, Jerry! How come you guys never do anything cool like this in Phoenix?
Yes! Come to the Valley of the Sun! Please! You’ll be more than welcomed.
You shouldn’t have any trouble getting Lawrence Krauss to invite you to do something at the Beyond Institute, if you’re looking for an excuse.
b&
No, dude. You come here. It’s not like you don’t have a place to stay.
How ’bout the best of both worlds? Jerry comes here and I go there — but not at the same time, of course….
b&
I’m completely serious. You get the tickets, since I can’t be online during the day, and, by coincidence, I already have that Wed, Thur, Fri off. This is way more notice than I had about the eclipse. I’m sure there are a lot of Chicago area readers who will help us make a weekend of it.
He’s teetering. Encourage him, people! Srsly.
An evening of shrill stridency!
He’ll be waving his stubs all around, no doubt.😎
Sorry, He’ll be waving his stumps all around… (How could I have failed to pay proper tribute to that esteemed “journalist” Sean Thomas?)
I just got tickets for the Royal Institution in London event – £12
http://www.richannel.org/home/ri-event-newsletters/15-august-newsletter
Also Svante Pääbo on a later date…!
boo! It’s a weeknight!
For some reason I read that as “wee-knight” and it made me think of a tiny medieval soldier. I think I could use a nap, or more caffeine.
A bit like these cow-orkers I keep reading about – there should be a law against it.
Richard is very kindly helping to raise funds for a statue of Alfred Russel Wallace for the Natural History Museum in London, which will be unveiled by Sir David Attenborough on the 100th anniversary of Wallace’s death – 7th November this year. The two events which Richard has agreed to do are as follows:
1) Ancestor’s Trail 2013 at the end of August 2013 in the Bristol area: http://ancestorstrail.net/
2) Consensus? Science Talks on the 16th November in London: http://www.entangled-bank.co.uk/consensus.html
I hope to see you there!
I saw this just the other day and hope very much to attend!
New York to California, excepting the flyover states of Missouri and Kansas, as usual. No one is “goin to Kansas City” anymore, always skipping us for “sweet home Chicago”.
If KC were still churning ’em out like Count Basie and Charlie Parker, like Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, I’ll bet visitors would still make it a point to drop down out of the sky, there to stop & give a listen.
I’m hoping Richard’s biography is as well-written and entertaining as his other books.
(And I don’t mean anything derogatory by ‘entertaining’, there’s no reason why serious writing has to be stodgy and boring).
Please, Jerry, make it recorded on video and posted on Youtube for others to enjoy!
HD photographs of the post-lecture noms will be expected.