Stephen Sondheim + Steven Pinker

Experimental psychologist and one of the world’s foremost writers on language, mind, and human nature Steven Pinker meets Stephen Sondheim.

A book signing will follow the program.

About the Speakers

Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for Saturday Night, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, The Frogs, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Assassins, Passion and Road Show as well as lyrics for West Side Story, Gypsy and Do I Hear A Waltz? and additional lyrics for Candide. he composed and contributed to the scores of Stavisky, Reds, andDick Tracy and the television production Evening Primrose. He co-authored the film The Last of Sheila and the play Getting Away With Murder. His collected lyrics with attendant essays have been published in two volumes: Finishing the Hat and Look, I Made A Hat. In 2010 the Broadway theater formerly known as Henry Miller’s Theatre was renamed in his honor. Photo by Jerry Jackson.

Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist and one of the world’s foremost writers on language, the mind, and human nature. Currently Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, Pinker has also taught at Stanford and MIT. His research on vision, language, and social relations has won prizes from the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, and the American Psychological Association. He has also received eight honorary doctorates, several teaching awards, and numerous prizes for his books The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, and The Better Angels of Our Nature. He was named Humanist of the Year and one of Prospect magazine’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals, Foreign Policy‘s 100 Global Thinkers, and Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World Today.

Brainwave is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.